{"id":30396,"date":"2022-06-02T06:06:31","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T09:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=30396"},"modified":"2026-04-23T08:09:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:09:27","slug":"melco-unlikely-to-resume-quarterly-dividend-payments-until-2024-analysts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/melco-unlikely-to-resume-quarterly-dividend-payments-until-2024-analysts-say","title":{"rendered":"Melco unlikely to resume quarterly dividend payments until 2024, analysts say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Analysts at Moody\u2019s Investors Service Inc say the casino operator\u2019s earnings and financial leverage are likely to remain weak until 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.-\u00a0Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd<\/strong>‘s recovery will be slower than expected, according to Moody’s Investors Service Inc. Analysts say the company may only resume quarterly dividend payments in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Payments were suspended during the first quarter of the year 2020 to preserve the company’s liquidity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melco Resorts & Entertainment<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>has recently reported a reduction of first-quarter net losses from US$232.9m to US$183.3m year-on-year. However, operating revenue was US$474.9m, down 8.5 per cent year-on-year and down 1.2 when\u00a0compared to the previous quarter<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Melco Resorts’ debt is likely to increase to around US$8.1bn by year-end 2022 due to the additional expenses incurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moody’s has lowered its predictions for Macau’s GGR levels for 2022 and 2023 to around 40 per cent and 80 per cent of 2019 levels respectively. They say\u00a0Macau\u2019s mass-market GGR could fully recover by 2024<\/strong>\u00a0but that VIP revenue is unlikely to recover significantly because of junket closures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moody’s also published a report on Studio City Finance Ltd<\/strong>, the promoter of the Studio City casino resort in Macau. It said weak operating cash flow coupled with capital spending for the\u00a0phase-two project<\/a> will drive a further increase in debt this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts stated: \u201cWe expect\u00a0Studio City Finance\u2019s capital spending to peak at around US$550m this year<\/strong>, mainly reflecting its Studio City phase-two expansion.\u00a0The company\u2019s capital spending will likely decline substantially in 2023 once the phase-two project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Analysts at Moody\u2019s Investors Service Inc say the casino operator\u2019s earnings and financial leverage are likely to remain weak until 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Moody's Investors Service projects a slower-than-anticipated recovery for Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd, with dividend payments not expected until 2024 and debt increasing to US$8.1bn by year-end 2022. The agency has revised down Macau's GGR forecasts for 2022 and 2023, anticipating mass-market recovery by 2024 but limited VIP segment rebound due to junket closures. Studio City Finance Ltd also faces increased debt from weak cash flow and significant capital expenditure for its Phase 2 expansion.","focusai_entities":"Moody\u2019s Investors Service Inc, Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd, Studio City Finance Ltd","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (0.7), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Macau GGR Recovery Outlook","query":"Given Moody's revised GGR projections and the divergence between mass-market and VIP recovery, what specific policy or operational shifts are anticipated from the Macau SAR government or major concessionaires to stimulate broader market growth?"},{"label":"Melco Debt & Capital Strategy","query":"How might Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd's projected US$8.1bn debt by year-end 2022 and delayed dividend resumption impact its capital allocation strategy for non-Macau assets or future M&A opportunities?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338],"tags":[24019],"class_list":["post-30396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","tag-e-sabong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30396","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=30396"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30401,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30396\/revisions\/30401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}