Underwhelming numbers during Golden Week

According to analysts, shares in casino operators listed in Hong Kong have decreased during the Golden Week holiday.

Macau.- Bernstein Research said that shares in casino operators from Macau listed in Hong Kong fell after the Golden Week holiday brought an underwhelming mix in gross gambling revenue (GGR).

The brokerage said that GGR from October 1-8 was US$1 billion, which was between the previous estimations, and 49 percent higher than September’s numbers and 9 percent higher than the same period in 2016. VIP volumes were weaker than expected during the first half of the week, whilst mass GGR was up in the single digits even if a strong growth in visitation was registered during those seven days.

“Whilst GGR was generally in-line with our expectations, the mix was poorer than we had expected and mass was disappointing,” said Bernstein. Macau experienced the visitation from 844k people, an 11.6 percent increase over the previous year.

GGR estimations for October are between the US$2.8 billion and US$2.9 billion range based on an average daily of US$80 million to US$84 million for the rest of the month, which would represent an 8.5 to 11.5 percent growth.