Fitch Ratings has forecast that Macau’s gaming revenues should be 65 per cent below 2019 levels in 2021, recovering to 35 per cent below 2019 by 2022, and fully recovering in 2024.
A total of MOP61.4 billion (US$7.7 billion) in gross gaming results has been reported between January and August of this year or about 21 per cent of the total results reported in 2019 pre-pandemic.
The rating agency made a comparison with Singapore’s gaming sector, stating it expects the city-state industry to see a slightly faster recovery thanks to its ‘high vaccination rate’, ‘strong domestic demand’, and as it is ‘starting to open up quarantine-free travel with certain high-vaccinated countries’.
Singapore is preparing to open quarantine-free air travel lanes with Germany, Hong Kong and Brunei for vaccinated travellers.
Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank has revised its estimates for the 2021 total Macau gaming sector tally towards some US$12.1 billion (MOP97 billion) or 67 per cent less than reported in 2019 pre-pandemic.
Analysts from Sanford C. Bernstein have indicated that the Macau daily gross gaming revenue for the week of Sep 1-5 rose 10 per cent from the previous week to MOP250 million after the downturn reported in August, and they expect full month results to be down mid to high 60 per cent compared to September 2019.
