The junket brands, which made a name for themselves managing Chinese VIP players in the Macau casino market, are now growing at a faster pace than the core market.
The proposal came from analysts at Morgan Stanley Banking Group following Thursday’s visit to Macau.
“We met with concessionaries, junket operators, and more than 20 investors on Feb. 21,” analysts Praveen Choudhary and Jeremy An of Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd said in a note the same day.
“We found travel to be a little bit positive with long tail [demand] after Chinese New Year, spring dinners for upcoming junk food, and higher minimum bets,” they added.
“For junket operators we met, overseas businesses are growing faster than Macau, but they are not growing at the expense of Macau,” analysts said.
“Growth is mainly coming from the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia, while [Korea] and Australia are not doing so well,” they observed.
Many Macau junket investors, including Suncity Group, are reported to be participating in regional markets such as the Philippines.
Several Macau junkets also have facilities in the Naga World Resort Complex, including the Naga 2 extension, or will open soon. The resort is located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and is operated by Naga Inc., a Hong Kong-listed company.
Nagakov said earlier this month that it expects all “Macao’s top four Mega Junkets” to operate in Nagar2 by 2019. Nagakov did not identify the four mentioned junket operators, but added that Suncity Group’s Nagar2 operation “will be relocated to a larger and more desirable location in the first quarter of 2019.” Macau-based junket operator Guangdong Group confirmed to GGRAsia last month that it was expanding its VIP gaming service to Nagar2.
Earlier this month, Takchun Group, another leading Macau investor in gambling junkets, announced that it was preparing to open a VIP gaming club at the Nagaworld casino resort complex in “mid-February.” The announcement did not clarify whether the new club was originally in the Nagaworld building or nearby Nagaworld 2.
Total gaming revenue (GGR) generated by the casino junket sector in the Philippines rose 24.4% year-over-year to $51.94 billion ($995.4 million) in 2018, accounting for 27.7% of the total casino GGR in the period, according to data released this week by Philippine casino regulator Paccor.
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