Investment bank JP Morgan said Tuesday that Macau’s gaming operators should achieve consolidated gross gaming revenues of between MOP$18.5 billion and MOP$19 billion (US$2.3 billion to US$2.4 billion) in October, comfortably achieving another post-pandemic high on a strong rebound in recent days.
Having experienced a post-Golden Week slowdown through the mid-month period, JP Morgan analysts DS Kim, Mufan Shi and Selina Li said in a note that GGR for the first seven days of October is estimated at MOP$14.6 billion (US$1.8 billion) – suggesting that gaming revenues had normalized back to MOP$575 million (US$71 million) per day, up 20% week-on-week.
This, they added, was “not surprising but still assuring that the month is on track to hit another post-pandemic high, quite comfortably.”
The bank’s October estimate of between between MOP$18.5 billion and MOP$19 billion would place GGR at 72% of October 2019 levels, with mass recovering to better than 100% but VIP at around 25%.
It added that forecasts were buoyed by Las Vegas Sands’ 3Q23 results, released last week, which “turned out to be better than feared with solid margin and OPEX control” at its Macau resorts.
These included net revenues for Sands China Ltd reaching US$1.78 billion – up from US$251 million a year earlier – and Adjusted Property EBITDA of US$631 million, reversing a US$152 million loss in the same period last year and improved on the US$541 million reported in Q2.
