{"id":30089,"date":"2022-05-24T05:34:22","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T08:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=30089"},"modified":"2026-04-23T08:27:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:27:40","slug":"macau-casinos-net-debt-could-reach-us25bn-this-year-analysts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-casinos-net-debt-could-reach-us25bn-this-year-analysts-say","title":{"rendered":"Macau casinos’ net debt could reach US$25bn this year, analysts say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Analysts at Morgan Stanley say this could be the figure if current travel restrictions remain in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- If Macau doesn’t reopen its borders soon, the city’s casino operators’\u00a0aggregate net debt could reach US$25m by the end of the year<\/strong>, according to a Morgan Stanley report. The figure would be five times that reached at the end of 2019 and 12 per cent higher than a \u201cbase case\u201d scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morgan Stanley said: “If China\u2019s travel easing gets delayed to the second half of 2023 Macau operator\u2019s aggregate net debt could rise another US$2bn, to US$27bn by end-2023, by our estimates.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of travel restrictions for Covid-19, Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd\u00a0<\/strong>has reported that\u00a0frequent gamblers to Macau<\/a>\u00a0have seen visas denied by Chinese immigration authorities. The situation has become so grave that Legislator Chan Chak Mo<\/strong>\u00a0has said Macau is willing to consider reducing the gross effective tax rate<\/a>\u00a0on casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) by as much as 5 percentage points if casinos can attract players from outside China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mainland China continues to be the only country to have a\u00a0largely quarantine-free travel bubble<\/a>\u00a0with Macau. However, authorities are evaluating a plan to allow selected non-residents to enter the city. Selected countries may be those where Macau residents have family members, are studying abroad, and where a large number of Macau professionals are required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macau gaming tax down 54% year-on-year in April<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Financial Services Bureau<\/strong> has reported that tax proceeds from gambling in April was MOP$1.48bn (US$183m)<\/strong>, a decrease of 53.9 per cent year-on-year<\/strong>, from MOP$3.21bn (US$397n) in April 2021. Last month\u2019s figure was also 50 per cent lower<\/strong> than the MOP$bn (US$371n) recorded in March 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first four months in 2021, gambling tax revenue was MOP$12.38bn (US$1.53bn). For the same period this year, revenue stands at MOP$10.21bn (US$1.26bn), a decrease of more than 17 per cent<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Analysts at Morgan Stanley say this could be the figure if current travel restrictions remain in place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau casino operators face escalating aggregate net debt, potentially reaching US$25bn by year-end, due as persistent travel restrictions and visa denials from China. This financial strain is evidenced by a 53.9% year-on-year decline in April's gambling tax revenue. Legislators are considering a GGR tax rate reduction of up to 5 percentage points to attract non-China players.","focusai_entities":"Morgan Stanley, Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd, Chan Chak Mo, Financial Services Bureau","focusai_location":"Macau, China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.7), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GGR Tax Reduction Impact?","query":"What specific conditions would trigger the proposed GGR tax rate reduction, and what is the projected impact on operator profitability and government revenue?"},{"label":"Operator Debt Leverage?","query":"How do the current debt projections for Macau operators compare to their pre-pandemic leverage ratios, and what are the implications for potential covenant breaches or restructuring?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,163],"tags":[23906],"class_list":["post-30089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-finance-news","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30089"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30094,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30089\/revisions\/30094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}