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Macau's
house take grows 23% to $8.9b, by Lisa Murray and
Bloomberg - 24th January 2007
(Credit:
The Sydney Morning Herald / Bloomberg)
Macau's total gaming revenue surged
23 per cent last year to almost $US7 billion ($8.9
billion), beating analyst expectations and boosting
the outlook for Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd,
which is building three casinos in the Chinese
city.
Shares
in PBL jumped 25c yesterday to $20.35 after the
figures were released by Macau's gaming regulator.
Macau
is expected to trump Las Vegas as the world's
biggest gaming destination in revenue terms. Figures
for 2006 have not yet been released by the Las
Vegas gambling industry but most analysts expect
they will confirm Macau has taken out the top
spot.
Goldman
Sachs JBWere analysts said the increase in Macau's
VIP gaming revenue of 17 per cent to $US4.2 billion
was above expectations. That's good news for PBL
as its first casino, Crown Macau, will be pitched
to the VIP market. The casino development, which
includes a 36-storey tower, 220 gaming tables,
more than 500 machines and a luxury hotel, is
to open in the middle of this year.
All
up, PBL along with its joint venture partner Melco
International, is spending $US3.3 billion on the
three casino developments. Its City of Dreams
development on the Cotai strip, which includes
an underwater casino, is expected to open at the
end of 2008. A third casino is to open on the
Macau Peninsula in mid-2009.
Analysts
have been cautious when it comes to valuing the
Melco-PBL joint venture because none of the casinos
are going yet.
Macau's
gaming revenue started to surge in 2004, when
Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands and Galaxy Casino
ended the four-decade monopoly of Hong Kong billionaire
Stanley Ho. Foreign investors are staking $US20
billion on making the city, a former Portuguese
colony that's now a special administrative region
of China, into the gambling capital of Asia.
By
the end of 2006, Macau had a total of 24 casinos
operating 2762 gaming tables, according to Macau's
Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau web
site.
The
city attracted 22 million visitors in 2006, an
increase of 17 per cent from 2005, according to
statistics released on January 17 by Joao Manuel
Costa Antunes, director of Macau's tourism office.
In
total, 2.2 billion people live within five hours'
flying time of Macau, according to CLSA Asia-Pacific
Markets, compared with 410 million in the same
radius of Las Vegas. Macau now earns 70 per cent
of its revenue from casino taxes and its economy
has doubled in four years to $US12 billion.
PBL
is also waiting on news out of London about which
region has been chosen for Britain's first ever
Las Vegas-style supercasino.
Aspers,
the joint venture between PBL and British casino
heir Damian Aspinall, has been chosen as the preferred
partner for the Cardiff council in Wales. However,
Blackpool and London are the front runners for
the supercasino licence.
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