Lawrence Hoyau Rong, chairman and chief executive officer of casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment, received the confirmation in a prepared statement accompanying the company’s fourth-quarter results on Wednesday.
“The first phase of the opening is expected to include Asia’s largest hotel tower and indoor water park,” he said. The second opening phase is scheduled for Q3 and will include a second hotel tower.
Melco Resorts will also invest between $75 million and $80 million in Studio City’s second phase of completion (파칭코) this year, management said. Mr. Ho has already confirmed the opening schedule last year.
According to David Sisk, Chief Operating Officer of Melco Resorts, the company will increase its workforce by about 1,000 to hire Studio City’s second-tier staff.
In terms of staff numbers, Melco Resorts still expects “about 10% less FTE [Full Time] at the end of 2023 compared to the last quarter of 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic” in its Macau business, Mr. Sisk said in a conference call with investment analysts after Q4 results. That was despite the second phase of the opening of Studio City.
“We’ve done a really good job rethinking how to run our business and we’re much more efficient at what we’re doing now,” he added.
In Macau, Melco Resorts operates its wholly owned City of Dreams Casino Resort and Altira Macau Casino Hotel. I’m a major shareholder of Studio City. The company also operates a slot machine chain under the brand Mocha Club.
Mr Ho referred to the prepared remarks in the results in the dream city of the Mediterranean, under construction by the group, a major property of Cyprus’s exclusive licence. “We were informed at the ministerial meeting that we had approved an extension of the deadline to open the dream city of Mediterranean until June 30 under the terms of the game license,” he said. “We continue to work with our contractors with the aim of opening up within that time frame.”
MELCO RESORT EXPECTS CAPITAL EXPENSES BETWEEN $60 MILLION AND $65 MILLION THIS YEAR FOR ITS CYPROSCO BUSINESS.
In a conference call with investment analysts, Ho said the company’s Macau performance in the first two months of 2023 was “very encouraging.”
“During this year’s peak Spring Festival season, we saw EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization] reaching $6 million per day,” Mr. Ho said. “Post-China volumes are well maintained and the average daily volume for February is in line with January.”
The executive noted that game trading was “very close to pre-pandemic levels” at the City of Dream Manila casino complex at Melco Resorts, which is managed by the Philippine capital. “We look forward to continued growth with more international travel to the Philippines and increased junket activity,” Ho added
4Q results are in the red
Melco Resorts saw its fourth-quarter 2022 net loss widen to $251.9 million, compared to $159.9 million a year earlier. Net loss was up 3.3% from the third quarter of 2022, according to the company’s results filed in the United States on Wednesday.
Q4 TOTAL OPERATING REVENUE WAS $337.1 MILLION, DOWN 29.9% Y/Y. The company reported total operating income of $241.8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022.
The drop in total operating income year-on-year was “mainly attributed to tightened COVID-19-related travel restrictions in Macau and mainland China during the quarter,” the company said. These constraints “weakened the performance of the rolling chip and mass market table game segments,” it added.
Melco Resorts generated negative adjusted property EBITDA of $6.8 million in the last quarter of last year, compared to positive figures of $94 million for the fourth quarter of 2021.
The company reported negative adjusted assets of EBITDA of $34.9 million in the third quarter of last year.
Total operating income for the fourth quarter of this year was $139.2 million, down 43.1% year-over-year, from the group’s Macau flagship City of Dreams. The property generated a negative adjusted EBITDA of $7.8 million, compared to a positive adjusted EBITDA of $49.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.