Macau casino operator SJM Holdings joined its competitors in reporting steep declines in revenue, earnings and profits in the first quarter of 2015.
For the three months ending March 31, SJM reported revenue down 37.3% to HKD 14.3b (US $1.84b), earnings down 43.3% to HKD 1.24b ($160m) and profit down 46.5% to HKD 1b ($129m). Despite the downturn, SJM’s share of Macau’s overall gaming revenue pie slipped just 0.3 points to 22.7%. SJM ended the quarter with HKD 23b in cash and just HKD 890m of debt.
SJM’s VIP revenue fell 45.4% to HKD 7.9b. VIP hold improved nearly half a point to 3.18% from the same period last year but it wasn’t enough to overcome a whopping 54% drop in VIP turnover. The average number of VIP tables in action during Q1 was 530, down from 582 in Q1 2014. Mass market revenue fell a comparatively minor 23.9% to HKD 6b and the number of mass market tables nudged up 14 to 1,209. Slot machine and Tombola revenue fell 5.6% to HK 330m.
SJM’s flagship Casino Grand Lisboa reported revenue of HKD 5.2b while SJM’s other self-promoted casinos contributed HKD 1.7b and the 15 satellite casinos that operate under SJM’s license added HKD 7.4b.