Sands China Ltd Records First Revenue Increase In 2 Years
Las Vegas Sands Corp, the US-based casino group, stated that net revenues of its Macau unit grew in the second quarter of 2021 by over 18-fold from a year earlier. The casino operator saw an increase in net revenues to about US$855million in the 2nd quarter.
Most of the operator’s casinos reported higher revenue in the period, except for the Plaza Macao and Four Seasons Macao, which posted lower revenues of US$125 million compared to US$170 million in the previous quarter.
They claim that it was mainly due to an increase in premium-mass revenue. This was Sands China Ltd’s first year-on-year revenue increase since early 2019.
Sands China posted an aggregate loss of US$166 million in the second quarter of this year. However, it was still an improvement on the US$213-million loss in the previous quarter. It was also better than the US$549 million loss recorded the previous year.
Las Vegas Sands chairman and chief executive Robert Goldstein stated that overall demand for their offerings remained high.
Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd analysts Vitaly Umansky, Kelsey Zhu, and Louis Li noted that Sands China gained gross gaming revenue [GGR] market share in the second quarter of 2021 from the first.
Sands China said that although visitors to Macau had greatly reduced compared to pre-pandemic, the mass gaming revenue was already 45% of the 2019 figures. Meanwhile, the premium gross gaming revenue (GGR) increased 8.6% in the second quarter.
The Chief Executive, Mr. Goldstein, in early June expressed his disappointment at the recovery pace in the Macau market but said he understood that the authorities were taking a safety-first approach amidst the pandemic.
In Singapore,
Net revenues fell to US$327 million in the second quarter, still 14-fold in year-on-year terms.
During the second quarter, in mid-May, the casino was closed for 52 hours for deep cleaning when two staff members tested positive for Covid-19.
Also, casino capacity limits in Singapore were raised back up to 50 percent in mid-June 2021 but recently reduced back to 25%.
Nonetheless, the group made an operating loss of US$139million in the second quarter, which is much lower than the US$757million from the previous year.
