More than 725,000 tourist arrivals were recorded in Macau the first three days of the Lunar New Year holidays, according to reports, an increase of 5 percent over the same period last year. The Macau government was expecting more than 900,000 visitors for the entire seven-day holiday.
But what got the attention was the news that January’s gaming revenue in Macau grew by only 7 percent year on year to MOP28.7 billion (US$3. 6 billion), the smallest increase since January 2013 and the slowest rate of monthly growth since October 2012.
Investors responded by dumping shares of the Hong Kong-listed casino operators, which equities analysts Union Gaming Research Macau described as “panic selling” that ignored the underlying strength of the market.
“That the rate of GGR growth slowed dramatically at the end of January should not come as a surprise given the historical behavior patterns, especially of VIP gamblers,” the firm said. “Typically there will be a pullback heading into CNY (although visitation trends have, indeed, remained strong through this period), and this effect was probably exacerbated this year as the heavily family-oriented days leading up to CNY fell at the very end of January and likely brought VIP to a standstill to end the month.”
The firm called the pullback “a buying opportunity heading in to what should be a strong CNY period and a very strong 2014”.
UGRM is forecasting gaming revenue growth of 14 percent this year.
“The continued strength in GGR is broad-based as we believe gaming volumes across all major segments (VIP, premium mass, mass) remain at exceptional levels.”
