He bases it on current daily run rates of us$ 133.6 million for the seven days to March 17 inclusive. “Given that mass market is steadily growing at 30 percent and it contributes 30 percent of the top line, a 25 % headline revenue growth would imply that VIP revenue is growing at 15 to 20 %, the strongest since the first quarter 2012,” says Fong in a note.
Analysts at Nomura Securities are also seeing strong Macau gaming growth in March. Harry Curtis estimates VIP revenues could be up 19 to 21 % for the month.
Gaming revenues in the first 17 days of March imply approximately us$ 3.7 billion to us$ 3.85 billion for the month, or up 24 to 27 %, above the firm’s estimate of 11 to 13 percent, Curtis said. “We believe that the March data thus far benefited from above-average hold, so we expect a sequential decline in average daily table win. The March data thus far imply mass table revenues could be up 30 to 35 % year-on-year (versus estimate of plus 28 %),” he wrote.