GALAXY Entertainment Group opened its $HK14.9 billion ($A1.8 billion) casino resort in Macau yesterday after an almost two-year delay because of the credit crisis, adding more competition to the booming market for James Packer's Melco Crown joint venture.
The 450-table, 2200-room Galaxy Macau may help Hong Kong billionaire Lui Che Woo's company reduce its reliance on high-stakes gamblers, said Donald Cheng, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Haitong Securities.
Galaxy's StarWorld casino made about 90 per cent of first-quarter sales from gamblers betting as much as $250,000 a hand.
''It will help Galaxy diversify its business,'' said Mr Cheng. ''Being the only new casino in the city this year, when revenue is undergoing a strong and healthy period of growth, will also bring more people there.''
Casino gambling revenue in Macau will probably grow 35 per cent to about $US32 billion ($A30.2 billion) this year, according to estimates by CLSA Asia Pacific Markets. Galaxy has almost quadrupled in market value over the past year, Wynn Macau has more than doubled and Sands China climbed 87 per cent as gambling has surged in the world's biggest casino hub.
The new venue will be ''a strong catalyst for market growth'' and will help boost revenue in the so-called mass-market gambling segment, which is more profitable, Aaron Fischer and Huei Suen Ng, Hong Kong-based analysts for CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, said in a note to clients. Galaxy Macau is on the isthmus of reclaimed land known as the Cotai Strip, where billionaire Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas Sands Corp's chairman and chief executive officer, has said he planned to recreate the Las Vegas Strip. Sands' Venetian Macao, the world's biggest casino by floor area, is on the Cotai Strip, with Packer's Melco Crown's City of Dreams across the road from it. Gambling revenue in the former Portuguese colony soared 58 per cent last year to $US23.5 billion, about four times that of the Las Vegas Strip.
''We're very excited about the infrastructure development in mainland China, which will make Macau more accessible to the burgeoning middle class of China,'' Galaxy chief financial officer Robert Drake said in an interview. ''The Macau market is projected to grow 15 to 20 per cent this year and … we are quite confident that we can sustain that growth.''
Galaxy Macau may boost the company's revenue at least 20 per cent this year, Francis Lui, son of Lui Che Woo and the company's deputy chairman, said in March.
The 450-table, 2200-room Galaxy Macau may help Hong Kong billionaire Lui Che Woo's company reduce its reliance on high-stakes gamblers, said Donald Cheng, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Haitong Securities.
Galaxy's StarWorld casino made about 90 per cent of first-quarter sales from gamblers betting as much as $250,000 a hand.
''It will help Galaxy diversify its business,'' said Mr Cheng. ''Being the only new casino in the city this year, when revenue is undergoing a strong and healthy period of growth, will also bring more people there.''
Casino gambling revenue in Macau will probably grow 35 per cent to about $US32 billion ($A30.2 billion) this year, according to estimates by CLSA Asia Pacific Markets. Galaxy has almost quadrupled in market value over the past year, Wynn Macau has more than doubled and Sands China climbed 87 per cent as gambling has surged in the world's biggest casino hub.
The new venue will be ''a strong catalyst for market growth'' and will help boost revenue in the so-called mass-market gambling segment, which is more profitable, Aaron Fischer and Huei Suen Ng, Hong Kong-based analysts for CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, said in a note to clients. Galaxy Macau is on the isthmus of reclaimed land known as the Cotai Strip, where billionaire Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas Sands Corp's chairman and chief executive officer, has said he planned to recreate the Las Vegas Strip. Sands' Venetian Macao, the world's biggest casino by floor area, is on the Cotai Strip, with Packer's Melco Crown's City of Dreams across the road from it. Gambling revenue in the former Portuguese colony soared 58 per cent last year to $US23.5 billion, about four times that of the Las Vegas Strip.
Galaxy Macau may boost the company's revenue at least 20 per cent this year, Francis Lui, son of Lui Che Woo and the company's deputy chairman, said in March.
