Direct gaming tax revenues in January and February, rose 54 percent to MOP 9.26 billion, the Financial Services Bureau (DSF) announced. Meanwhile, analysts said casino earnings may set a new record in March and shares continue to go up.
Direct gaming tax receipts accounted for 86.55 percent of total government revenue. Total government revenue reached MOP 10.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 45.8 percent. Government expenditure fell by 46.5 percent, to MOP 1.26 million.
Macau’s public finances confounded the international crisis last year as total public revenue in 2009 amounted to MOP 57.64 billion, an increase of 0.014 percent or MOP 8.1 million over the previous year.
Analysts at Citi said Macau gaming is on pace for a record month in March. According to the firm’s note, checks show gaming revenue in Macau has reached around MOP 7.5 billion in the first 16 days of March, up 58 percent from last year.
Year-to-date, gaming revenue is up 66 percent from last year the firm notes. If the current run-rate continues, Macau’s gaming revenue could reach a new high at around MOP 14.5 billion.
The company said SJM is the only winner in terms of market share gains for the month. In addition, it appears that Wynn, MGM and Melco-Crown have lost one percentage point each in market share in March so far versus February.
Moreover, Gabriel Chan, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG in Hong Kong, said that gaming stocks “are heading into a major substantial re-rating over the next couple of months”.
“Over the past couple of months, we have seen, especially for Macau, month after month of much better than expected gaming revenue numbers, but share prices hardly reacted to that good news,” he told Bloomberg.
“We have to adjust expectations a lot higher to accommodate much stronger growth – we are entering a stage where no one can ignore the growth anymore,” Chan said. In his view, “valuation has not fully priced in the growth potential yet”.
www.macaudailytimes.com.mo/macau/10445-Gaming-tax-revenues.html
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