Macau casinos are back on track after typhoon

After being forced to shut down their operations for almost three days, casino demand has “recovered quickly”, brokerage Nomura says.

Macau.- Typhoon Mangkhut hit southeast Asia over the last few days and forced Macau casinos to temporarily shut down their operations. However, after reopening last Monday, casino demand has “recovered quickly,” Japanese brokerage Nomura says as it explained there was no major damage to the city’s infrastructure.

“We have spoken with a number of operators over the last few days and believe post-typhoon trends in Macau have already normalised,” Nomura analysts Harry Curtis, Daniel Adam and Brian Dobson wrote in a note and added: “Unlike Typhoon Hato, which struck Macau last year, we understand there was minimal damage to the city’s infrastructure from Typhoon Mangkhut. As a result, we do not expect the same lingering, negative, post-typhoon impact that affected Macau GGR last year to repeat.”

The Japan-based brokerage had also announced its company Instinet had cut its original GGR forecast of €2.59 billion to €2.48 billion, which is lower than expected but still 10% better year-on-year. “Although post-typhoon demand has already bounced back, our analysis… suggests the mandatory suspension of casino operations over the weekend could impact September GGR growth by approximately 500 basis points (negative),” they explained.