[ET Net News Agency, 2 June 2020] Goldman Sachs said Macau's gross gaming revenue (GGR)
decline of 93% to MOP1.8bn in May was in line with the research house's expectation.
Goldman's base case still assumes the travel restrictions will be lifted in June-July
and GGR will fall by around 80-90% in 2Q, followed by a narrower decline of 30% in 3Q
before recovering to 20% growth in 4Q.
For 2021, it expects Macau's GGR would recover to US$33.6bn, still 6% below US$36bn in
2019. This echoes most operators' expectations (MLCO, Galaxy, Wynn Macau, MGM China, Sands
China) on strong pent-up demand referring to the improving domestic travel trend in
mainland China during Labor Holiday in early May.
Goldman said past experience during the SARS outbreak in 2003 also suggests travel
demand recovered quickly once the situation was under control. (KL)