Macau casino operators to submit 2023 investment plans this month

Casino operators must submit annual execution proposals to authorities.

Macau.- Macau’s six casino concessionaires will submit their respective 2023 investment plans to the government for approval this month.

As part of their new concessions, casino operators submitted overall investment plans covering 2023 to 2032. However, they must now submit annual execution proposals for 2023 providing details of specific projects and proposed spending and execution schedules for this year.

While the submission of the proposals is usually required up to three months before the start of each calendar year, this year’s deadline is later due to the new concessions starting in January.

The Macau government will respond to each proposal within two months. It has the right to request adjustments to specific projects, amounts invested or execution schedules. 

If a proposal is not approved, the operator must propose reallocating the funds to other projects, subject to the agreement of the government. Operators must provide execution reports on the previous year’s proposal by March 31, with progress reports every two months. 

According to the new concession contracts, published in December, the MGM group will invest MOP16.7bn over the next decade, with the Galaxy group investing MOP28.35bn, Sands pledging MOP30.24bn, Melco investing MOP11.82bn, Wynn committing to MOP17.73bn, and SJM proposing an investment of MOP14.03bn.

Macau GGR reaches US$222.6m in first week of March

Casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the first five days of March is estimated to be around MOP1.8bn (US$222.6m), or MOP360m per day, according to JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd. Analysts DS Kim and Mufan Shi noted that the estimate is consistent with the trend for the first two months of 2023, which saw MOP370m a day. 

In February, GGR fell by 10.8 per cent month-on-month to MOP10.32bn (US$1.27bn) but was up 33.1 per cent year-on-year.