Macau casino investors’ wealth plunges due to Covid-19 restrictions
Forbes has revealed that the wealth of several billionaire Hong Kong investors in Macau’s casino resorts has shrunk over the past 12 months.
Macau.- Forbes has released its annual rich list and several Macau casino investors have seen their wealth decline due to factors such as Covid-19 related travel restrictions. Analysts attributed the plunge to the drop in the investors’ net worth to Macau casino companies’ share prices.
Lawrence Ho, chief executive of Melco Resorts & Entertainment, saw the biggest drop, with his fortune falling 37 per cent year-on-year from US$1.99bn to US$1.25bn. He was followed by Lui Che Woo, chairman of Galaxy Entertainment, whose fortune plummeted 28 per cent to US$12.8bn.
The wealth of Pansy Ho, co-chairman of MGM China, has shrunk by 17 per cent to US$3.4bn, while the wealth of Angela Leong, the largest single shareholder of SJM Holdings, has shrunk by 12 per cent to US$2.9bn.
Morgan Stanley lowers Macau GGR forecast for 2022
Morgan Stanley Banking Group has lowered its estimate of Macau’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) for 2022 by 30 per cent to US$15bn.
According to analysts, the market has seen an intermittent recovery, but travel restrictions and regulatory uncertainty will remain in the first half of 2022. They have also reduced their estimate for 2023 by 20 per cent to US$26bn.
The group now predicts that casino GGR in 2022 and 2023 will reach 42 per cent and 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in 2019, respectively
