Macau casino operator MGM China Holdings Limited has released its unaudited first-quarter financial results showing that its aggregated revenues dropped by 9% year-on-year to approximately $267.57 million.

The Hong Kong-listed firm used an official Monday filing to detail that this decline came as market-wide first-quarter gross gaming revenues in Macau plummeted by 25% year-on-year to slightly beyond $1.19 billion with associated daily receipts at only a quarter of their pre-pandemic fourth quarter of 2019 equivalents.

Sizeable stake:

A subsidiary of American casino giant MGM Resorts International, MGM China Holdings Limited is responsible for Macau’s MGM Cotai and MGM Macau venues and revealed that its first-quarter daily gross gaming revenues were approximately 35% of their pre-pandemic levels. However, the operator moreover declared that it was able to grow its market share in the former Portuguese enclave by 1.8% to a very healthy 13.3% due to its ‘meticulous focus on service and product coupled with our strength in the premium segment.’

Coronavirus consequences:

MGM China Holdings Limited pronounced that its resultant adjusted first-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization fell by 45.2% year-on-year to about $5.86 million although it ‘maintained a healthy financial position’ with total liquidity of roughly $1.53 billion in ‘cash and cash equivalents and undrawn revolver’. The operator also stated that this crash followed ‘the widening pandemic outbreaks in mainland China during the quarter’ that left many area localities in lockdowns alongside Macau’s overall decline in aggregated gross gaming revenues following its decision to ‘tighten requirements for inbound travellers.’

Slim success:

Regarding its flagship MGM Macau property and MGM China Holdings Limited disclosed that the 600-room venue experienced a fall of 7.7% year-on-year in first-quarter revenues to $152.89 million as adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization dropped by 10% to something like $19.49 million. Nevertheless, the company asserted that the 35-story facility was ‘by far the best performing mass gaming property on the peninsula’ with hotel occupancy at 73% and ‘the highest mass table win since May of 2021.’

Cotai crumble:

MGM China Holdings Limited went on to divulge that its 1,390-room MGM Cotai development recorded first-quarter revenues of approximately $116.46 million, which represented a plunge of 6.8% year-on-year, as its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization collapsed by almost 26% to a deficit of about $13.76 million. The firm noted that this four-year-old enterprise chalked up a hotel occupancy fate over the course of the three-month period of only 39% as ‘Macau and greater China continued to be under the severe impact of the coronavirus pandemic.’

Licensing link:

Kenneth Xiaofeng Feng serves as the Chief Financial Officer for MHM China Holdings Limited and he used the filing to additionally assert that his company views Macau as ‘an important part of our future’ and intends to ‘continue to work with the government on re-tendering.’ The executive went on to pronounce that the operator remains committed ‘to further promoting the long-term development’ of the city’s casino industry while ‘supporting the government’s tourism and diversification goals for the region.’

Read a statement from Feng…

“The group will maintain focus on understanding and addressing the needs of our customers and strive for ongoing improvements over our gaming floors, product offering and services. We believe that once demand returns, we are well-positioned for growth, particularly in our premium mass and mass segments.”