Macau’s gaming industry won’t see stable results until 2023, analyst says
According to Jeffries Group, Macau’s gaming industry will continue to see rocky numbers through the rest of this year.
Macau.- Although recent weeks have seen a small improvement compared to last month, Andrew Lee, an analyst at investment banking company Jeffries Group, believes Macau’s gaming sector will not see stable financial results until 2023.
Macau’s casinos reopened on July 23, but operating restrictions, including staff and guest capacity limits, remain in place and the number of visitors remains limited. Lee said that Macau visitor numbers will remain low amid concerns about further quarantine measures.
In July, analysts at JP Morgan Securities published a report estimating that Macau casino operators will end the year with approximately US$800m in EBITDA losses due to the latest outbreak of Covid-19 cases.
The brokerage had previously predicted EBITDA of US$991m and a GGR of US$7bn. However, analysts now predict that Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) will reach only 19 per cent of 2019 levels this year. They expect 2023 GGR could rebound to 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, Macau reported full-year gross gambling revenue of MOP292.4bn (US$36.1bn).
