Macau’s gross gaming revenue is on track to complete a 10 percent upswing for the first three months of 2017 on the back of a better than expected start to the year.
According to brokerage Sanford C Bernstein, both mass and VIP gaming have slightly exceeded expectations through January and February with mass set to ensure the trend continues through the remainder of 2017.
“For Q1 2017, based on our observations of market, we are estimating GGR growth of over 10 percent, led by ~12.5 percent growth in VIP and ~9 percent growth in mass,” said Bernstein analysts Vitaly Umansky, Zhen Gong and Yang Xie.
“We estimate industry-wide EBITDA to increase by nearly 19 percent year-on-year during 1Q 2017. The long-term growth prospects for the industry remain attractive.”
Bernstein is expecting GGR growth of around eight percent for 2017 as a whole with mass growth of 11 percent and VIP of five percent year-on-year.
