MACAU BUSINESS
Macau Roulette
By Tony Lai
Maintaining status quo for stability, no new land for integrated resorts are among some of the reasons most observers don’t bet on the possibility of Genting Group to edge out one of the six incumbents for a new licence in the Macau gaming market, but a few perceive its ties with Beijing might help the fi rm to pull off a surprise win
I
t’s unexpected but not surprising to see Malaysia-based multinational gaming conglomerate Genting Group throw its hat into the ring, taking on the six incumbents for six available spots in the development of the Macau gaming industry in the next 10 years.
Nonetheless, it’s a daunting challenge for the fi rm headed by Malaysian billionaire Lim Kok Thay to prove their credentials in this quest. A total of seven bids were submitted and accepted for the public tender of up to six 10-year Macau gaming concessions, which will begin after the current six licences expire by the end of this year. The seven bidders include the six existing operators and GMM Ltd, which is an indirect subsidiary of Genting Malaysia, part of Genting Group. The government committee, which oversees this process, is now analysing the bids after engaging in discussions and consultation with the seven companies, and a preliminary result of the concessions is expected to be announced in November. “It is unlikely for a government to choose a new foreign
operator over incumbents, who have invested billions of dollars and employed local staff over two decades, including in an unprecedented downturn like this,” brokerage JP Morgan said in a recent research note, referring to the slump of the Macau gaming industry that has been battered by the COVID-19 travel restrictions and Beijing’s crackdown on cross-border gambling in the past three years. According to multiple gaming analysts, the total amount of
investments in Macau by the six existing operators—namely, Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd, Sands China Ltd, Wynn Macau Ltd, SJM Holdings Ltd, MGM China Holdings Ltd, and Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd—totalled over US$50 billion in the past two decades, and they are among the biggest employers in the territory. “Why would the current six be let go? They’ve got
everything the government has asked them to do: they have properties, they have employees, [and] they have 20 years of history,” Macau-based gaming analyst Alidad Tash remarks. “I’m not surprised [Genting tendered a bid] … but what
I’m saying is that I just think that they won’t get it,” says Mr Tash, managing director of consultancy 2NT8 Ltd. “Why would the government just go and take another company from the outside?” The incumbents have also expressed confi dence amid the challenge from Genting. “We’re confi dent because over the last 15 or 16 years, we have really supported the Macau government’s vision in terms of developing non-gaming diversifi cations. Entertainment has always been in our DNA,” Lawrence Ho Yau Lung, chairman and CEO of Melco, said when submitting a bid for his fi rm in September. A similar sentiment is also echoed by Pansy Ho Chiu King, co- chairperson and executive director of MGM China Holdings Ltd, who said: “The gaming operators in Macau always support the entire community and follow different policies from the government.”
Two in one
Besides the track record of the “big six” in Macau, another hurdle GMM has to overcome is how and where the company, if selected as one of the winners, can operate
20 NOVEMBER 2022
nazarovsergey/Adobe Stock
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
