Macau Mass Gross Gaming Revenue Recovers to 94 Percent of 2019 Levels – J.P. Morgan

MACAU, SAR (October 4, 2023) — Macau’s mass gross gaming revenue (GGR) has been a primary earnings driver in the third quarter of 2023, experiencing a 9 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth and reaching a range of 93 to 94 per cent of pre-Covid levels, Macau News Agency (MNA) reports brokerage firm J.P. Morgan said.

Meanwhile, the VIP segment’s GGR saw a slight decline of 3 per cent quarter-on-quarter, amounting to 25 to 26 per cent of pre-Covid levels, primarily attributed to VIP luck normalisation.

In a Monday note, J.P. Morgan said that it expected this trend to result in a more than 10 percent quarter-on-quarter increase in industry EBITDA, reaching approximately 80 per cent of 2019 levels.

Analysts DS Kim, Mufan Shi, and Selina Li noted that the performances in the third quarter “fell slightly short” of initial Wall Street estimates, partly due to adverse weather conditions in September.

According to figures released by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) on Sunday, the casino industry recorded gross gaming revenue of MOP14.9 billion (US$1.86 billion) for September, marking a 13 percent decrease from the previous month.

The September GGR figure was affected by Typhoon Saola, which swept through the city and resulted in the closure of casinos for at least nine hours on 1 and 2 September.

J.P. Morgan analysts said that the reported figure aligned with the latest sell-side consensus of MOP14.8 billion, and they considered September to be “one of the least important months due to soft seasonality”.

Regarding the National Day Golden Week, analysts observed that visitation from mainland China to gaming floors exhibited weaker-than-expected performance during the first two days, while there was an “extremely strong” recovery in non-mainland visitation.

SOURCE. Macau News Agency (MNA).