Melco Resorts & Entertainment is putting its downtime to good use, accelerating renovations at its Studio City resort in Macau.
Melco’s Executive Vice President and CFO Geoff Davis said the company used the lack of business in Macau as an opportunity to “get some projects done,” including “new carpet and all the ceilings painted … We’ve done a lot of work in the casino. When people do come back, they’re going to come back to a brand new casino.”
Following a 12-month delay, the company has also gotten the go-ahead to start Phase 2 of construction at the Cotai Strip resort. Company Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho thanked Macau’s new chief executive, Ho Iat Seng, who assumed the role in December, for ably managing the crisis.
“It’s unfortunate that within the first 100 days the new administration took over, you had Covid-19, and that has taken most of their attention. I have to give credit to the Macau chief executive” for helping Melco begin its long-awaited next phase, said Ho during Melco’s first-quarter earnings call.
Melco said it has also accelerated renovation work at Nüwa, formerly branded as Crown, at City of Dreams which it hopes to have completed by September and in time for October Golden Week, reported Inside Asian Gaming.
Melco Resorts gained 6.4 percentage points of Macau market share in terms of gross gaming revenue year-on-year in the quarter, according to GGRAsia, though it incurred a US$364 million loss due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Melco’s Macau operation “took 21.4 percent market share in the first quarter, versus 15 percent in the first quarter 2019 and 17 percent in the fourth quarter 2019,” wrote Sanford Bernstein analysts Vitaly Umansky, Eunice Lee and Kelsey Zhu. “We estimate Melco gained share in both VIP and mass.”
The group is “set up to benefit from high-end recovery, when it comes,” they added.
