Macau likely to experience GGR setback in August

Brokerages estimated that gross gaming revenues (GGR) in Macau will fall from 2% to 4% in August, mainly because of Hong Kong disputes.

Macau.- The casino industry in Macau is expected to report negative results in August. Channel checks from brokerage Bernstein have indicated that gross gaming revenue (GGR) is likely to fall between 2% to 4% year-on-year in August.

The reason for the GGR setback in Macau could be transport disruptions in Hong Kong due to disputes in the territory. The decrease in visitation from Chinese gamblers as well as Typhoon Lekima affected Macau earlier this month and August overall results.

Bernstein said that for the first 25 days of August, Macau’s GGR was €2.2 billion, with an average daily rate of €91.8 million. ADR from August 19-25 fell to €92.3 million.

The analysts at Bernstein also said that Macau would report positive numbers if it manages to increase VIP activity. However, Bernstein said that that’s not likely to happen this month.

Hong Kong airport did not impact Macau, Nomura said

Last week, brokerage Nomura analysts said that the two-day shut down of the airport did not hurt GGR for the week between August 12-18. “We estimate daily GGR last week was around €97.2 million (€91.7 million per day month-to-date), up approximately 7% sequentially from our estimate for the prior week (€90.8 million/day),” said Instinet LLC, a research arm of Japanese brokerage Nomura.

Analysts Harry Curtis, Daniel Adam and Brian Dobson added: “Protests in Hong Kong and the temporary closing of the airport had no effect on the weekly GGR number, it seems.”