{"id":777028874,"date":"2025-07-10T08:52:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T11:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777028874"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:07:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:07:02","slug":"macau-ebitda-growth-lags-amid-strong-q2-ggr-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-ebitda-growth-lags-amid-strong-q2-ggr-growth","title":{"rendered":"Macau EBITDA growth lags amid strong Q2 GGR growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Citigroup has highlighted the impact of extensive promotional activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- Casinos in Macau saw the strongest quarter since reopening after Covid-19 lockdowns in Q2, with gross gaming revenue (GGR) rising 8.3 per cent year-on-year to MOP61.12bn (US$7.58bn), according to a Citigroup analysis. However, EBITDA growth lagged, increasing by just 3 per cent year-on-year to US$2.045bn due to what analysts described as an “unfavourable revenue mix.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citigroup analysts George Choi and Timothy Chau<\/strong> highlighted the impact of a higher-than-expected VIP contribution, as well as extensive promotional activity tied to high-profile entertainment events<\/a>, including a concert series by Hong Kong pop icon Jacky Cheung at Galaxy Arena. While these initiatives boosted footfall and GGR, they also led to increased offers, squeezing margins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe slightly unfavourable revenue mix will likely lead to a minor reduction in industry EBITDA margin, down 60 basis points to 27.3 per cent,\u201d the analysts noted. They emphasised that this was not due to a battle among operators but a structural effect of the segmentation shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of operator performance, MGM China was the quarter\u2019s biggest market-share gainer, climbing 0.9 percentage points quarter-on-quarter to 16.8 per cent. Galaxy Entertainment increased its share by 0.6 points to 20.3 per cent amid the Galaxy Arena events. SJM Holdings saw the steepest decline, losing 1.4 points to 12.3 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melco Resorts, Sands China, and Wynn Macau each saw modest fluctuations of less than 0.5 percentage points. Citi placed 30-day upside catalyst watches on both Melco and Galaxy, citing strong EBITDA forecasts, with Melco\u2019s adjusted property EBITDA projected to grow 12 per cent year-on-year to US$338m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts expressed optimism. \u201cPlayers\u2019 appetite for gaming remained strong despite geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties,\u201d they wrote. \u201cIn our view, the Macau gaming sector deserves more credit from investors<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citi raised target prices across its Macau gaming coverage by an average of 9 per cent, with Melco seeing the most significant revision. Wynn Macau and parent Wynn Resorts were both downgraded from Buy to Neutral.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Analysts expect Macau GGR growth to continue in July<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Citigroup has highlighted the impact of extensive promotional activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":680,"featured_media":25291,"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's Q2 GGR rose 8.3% year-on-year to MOP61.12bn, marking the strongest quarter since reopening, according to Citigroup. However, EBITDA growth lagged at 3% due to an \"unfavourable revenue mix\" driven by higher VIP contribution and extensive promotional activities, which compressed industry EBITDA margins by 60 basis points. Citigroup analysts expressed optimism for the sector, raising target prices for several operators while downgrading Wynn Macau and Wynn Resorts.","focusai_entities":"Citigroup, MGM China, Galaxy Entertainment, SJM Holdings, Melco Resorts, Sands China, Wynn Macau, Wynn Resorts, George Choi, Timothy Chau, Jacky Cheung","focusai_location":"Macau, Hong Kong","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.7), operator_casino (1.0), marketing_crm (0.8), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Margin Impact Analysis","query":"What specific operational adjustments are Macau operators implementing to mitigate the 60 basis point EBITDA margin compression driven by the \"unfavourable revenue mix\" and extensive promotional spend?"},{"label":"Post-Downgrade Strategy","query":"How will Wynn Macau and Wynn Resorts adjust their capital allocation and market strategy in Macau following Citigroup's downgrade from Buy to Neutral, particularly concerning their competitive positioning?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16338],"tags":[725,257,23906],"class_list":["post-777028874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-east-asia-news","tag-ggr","tag-macau","tag-macau-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777028874","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\/680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777028874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777028874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777028900,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777028874\/revisions\/777028900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777028874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777028874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777028874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}