May casino revenue shows strong growth despite weak stock momentum – JP Morgan

JP Morgan analysts DS Kim and Mufan Shi said in a note today (Monday) that the expected daily run-rate for May was above the rate of MOP490 million recorded last month, and even higher than the average of MOP385 million for the first quarter of the year.

“It’s not easy to analyse this print on an apples-to-apples basis given the composition of this print which includes three holiday days and four slow days post-holiday,” the two analysts said. “But this is undeniably a strong print in our view.”

The investment bank said that the uplifting figure implied strong May Day demand, which it said could have been twice as high as that of “non-holiday ones.” 

Moreover, it believes that demand from the mass market has returned to at least 90 per cent of pre-Covid levels – higher than a 65 percent recovery observed in the first quarter of the year.

“We continue to believe and hope that better-than-expected fundamentals will ultimately drive the sentiment or stocks higher as the Street numbers go higher and higher, which in turn should further shave off valuations to ‘too cheap to ignore’ levels,” said Kim and Shi.

Macau’s casinos generated gross gaming revenue of MOP14.72 billion (US$1.83 billion) in April – the highest monthly figure since January 2020.

However, the city’s six Hong Kong-listed gaming operators have seen their stocks sinking since late last week, with Sands China’s hitting a one-month low, and Melco International Development’s trading at the lowest level in three months today.

By Aries Un