Grand Lisboa Palace opens new retail area for local brands

SJM’s Cotai resort has opened a new retail area as part of an initiative to promote Macau’s home-grown brands.

Macau.- SJM Resorts has announced the opening of a new retail area at its Cotai integrated resort Grand Lisboa Palace. Located on Level 1 of The Bazaar shopping mall, the new area covers 75,000 square metres and exclusively stocks local brands as part of the SJM SME Cooperation Programme, an initiative that promotes Macau’s home-grown brands.

SJM’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Daisy Ho, said: “Through the ‘SJM SME Cooperation Programme’, we aim to play an inspiring role in creating an ecosystem conducive to growth for these enterprising lifestyle brands spanning food and beverage, jewelry, and other retail industries. 

“We believe the cluster effect will enhance their visibility and spotlight the merits of their offers. The programme will also lay a foundation for growth for ‘Made in Macau’ brands.”

When complete, Grand Lisboa Palace will have around 2,000 hotel rooms split between three venues: The Lisboa Palace Hotel, Palazzo Versace Macau, and Karl Lagerfeld Hotel luxury boutique hotel. It will have 27,000 square metres of gaming floor space (290,000 sq ft) for up to 700 gaming tables and 1,200 electronic gaming machines.

SJM Holdings could access US$637m loan from shareholder STDM

As previously reported by Focus Gaming News, SJM Holdings has revealed it could access a HK$5bn (US$637m) loan from controlling shareholder STDM. However, Sanford C. Bernstein noted that no details have been provided about the possible arrangement.

They said: “Management also confirmed that there is no gaming regulator or government approval in terms of the potential shareholder loan nor is any bank covenant limiting the ability to draw funds from STDM.”

Analysts Vitaly Umansky and Louis Li noted that the company only has liquidity for three to four months and pointed to the opening of the Grand Lisboa Palace in June 2021 as a cause of economic difficulties.

SJM has posted a loss of HK$1.28bn (US$163.4m) for the first quarter of the year.