Macau concessionaire Sands China says it is encouraged by the recovery of the base mass segment, which is showing increasingly strong demand despite transportation infrastructure still lagging 2019 levels.
Speaking during parent company Las Vegas Sands’ 4Q23 earnings call on Thursday morning (Asia time), newly promoted Sands China CEO and President Grant Chum noted that base mass revenues grew by 7% sequentially during the quarter, still slower than the 13% growth seen in premium mass but with positive momentum building compared with earlier in the year.
Figures supplied by LVS show that bass mass win reached 97% of pre-COVID levels at US$732 million in Q4, while premium mass win reached 101% at US$685 million.
“I think base mass was progressing nicely through the quarter, it’s just that premium mass had a great performance that exceeded that,” Chum explained.
“If you look at the visitation trends in the fourth quarter, Macau actually recovered to almost 90% of 2019 levels, so I think the base mass is continuously progressing and building up, and transportation infrastructure has improved. The desire to take advantage of the non-gaming events that have been coming onstream has been very effective so you should expect that growth pattern to continue.”
Chum also noted that while transportation options continued to improve, the “desirability” of customers to find their way to Macau was clearer. This, he observed, was evident in the fact that passenger numbers using the company’s Cotai Water Jet services recovered to 93% of pre-COVID levels in 4Q23 despite sailing capacity still sitting at just 52%.
Likewise, foreign visitation to Macau has recovered to more than 80% despite direct flights from foreign countries still sitting below 60%.
“Clearly people are enthusiastic about coming even through transportation capacity is still recovering,” Chum said.
Sands explained that it remains confident of capturing a sizeable chunk of the base mass market as it returns, even with the Phase 2 renovation of The Londoner Macao set to gather pace during the second half of this year.
Asked about any potential disruption, Chum explained there could be some impact during that time given that Phase 2 will largely focus on upgrading the property’s hotel inventory.
“We have done the bulk of the work in the public areas, externals, the façade, retail mall and one of the two casinos in Phase 1, but we only touched 1,000 keys out of the 6,000 we have, so the main different is that phase 2 will address the majority of the hotel inventory in terms of renovation, plus the other gaming floor we have on the Sheraton side,” he said.
LVS Chairman and CEO Robert Goldstein added, “When you see the eventual transformation of The Londoner, it will be juggernaut on par with The Venetian and beyond. That will give us two assets we think can make us US$3 billion by themselves, and while there is disruption this year, 2025 and beyond gives us something unique in that market.
“The end result will be well worth the pain.”
