Galaxy Entertainment Group remains cautious on its outlook for the remainder of the year, despite voicing optimism in Macau achieving an uplift in fortunes in the not too distant future.
The autonomous region has brought third quarter challenges for the casino and entertainment operator, mirroring the performances experienced across many competing organisations during the same time frame.
However, despite this short-term wariness “great confidence in the future of Macau” is stressed in the medium to longer term, with Galaxy sharing a belief that “there remains significant demand for leisure, tourism and travel”.
Group-wide revenue through the third quarter tracked a 52 per cent drop year-on-year to HK$2bn, which also represents a 16.66 per cent quarterly downfall from Q2’s HK$2.4bn.
This saw decreases felt across each property in the company’s portfolio, as Galaxy Macau brought Q3 revenue HK$1.1bn that represents drops of 62 per cent and 25 per cent YoY and QoQ, respectively.
StarWorld Macau fell 76 per cent on a yearly basis and 28 per cent quarterly to HK$158m, with Broadway Macau closing Q3 2022 at HK$10m versus HK$14m one year earlier and HK$15m through the current year’s April to June period.
A similar performance was also encountered across adjusted EBITDA, with the impacts of COVID-19 and travel restrictions cited as each venue declined to see the company report an overall loss of HK$581m. AEBITDA through Q3 2021 was HK$503m, while the second quarter of the current year tracked a loss of HK$384m.
“Going forward in the medium to longer term, we remain confident in the future of Macau”
“Moving onto our Q3 2022 performance, the elevated COVID-19 related travel restrictions imposed in Q2 flowed into Q3 and even resulted in the closure of casinos for 12 days during the quarter,” said Dr Lui Che Woo, Chair of Galaxy Entertainment Group.
To emphasise the struggles encountered, Galaxy cited statistics from the region’s gaming bureau (DICJ), which suggested that gross gaming revenue as a whole through Q3 was down 70 per cent YoY and 35 per cent QoQ to HK5.4bn.
The increased travel restrictions and quarantine rules are also said to have impacted visitor arrivals, which were 898,998 for the quarter, down 51 per cent YoY and 43 per cent QoQ.
“Going forward in the medium to longer term, we remain confident in the future of Macau. However, we do acknowledge that further potential outbreaks of COVID-19 may impact our future financial performance,” the Galaxy CEO noted.
Before moving on to detail progress on projects being undertaken by the group: “Moving onto our development update, we continue to make ongoing progressive enhancements to our resorts to ensure that they remain competitive and appealing to our guests.
“We also continue to invest in Macau with our Cotai phase three effectively completed and continue to move forward with phase four, our next generation integrated resort, which will complete our ecosystem in Cotai.
“As you can see, we remain confident about the future of Macau where Cotai phases three and four will support Macau’s vision of becoming a world centre of tourism and leisure.”
