THE MACAU METRO MONITOR, JULY 15, 2013

SJM BELIEVES CONSOLIDATING SMALL CASINOS WILL BOOST PROFIT Ming Pao Daily News

Casino operators have been adding more non-gaming facilities to their casino and resort projects in Cotai to lure more different customers.  According to some financial reports, SJM’s EBITDA of one gaming table in its bigger size casino can reach US$5,000, as compared to the US$1,729 at its other casinos.  The overall performance of SJM was dragged down by small or third-party operated casinos. SJM CEO Ambrose So said although Grand Lisboa has a higher operating efficiency, there is little room to add more gaming tables. The situation will improve when the casino operator's project in Cotai is operational.

HONG KONG HORSE BETS EXCEED LAS VEGAS CASINOS Bloomberg

Bets on horse races in Hong Kong are poised to exceed wagers at Nevada's casinos for a second straight year.  Wagers of HK$93.8 billion ($12 billion) from 83 horse-race meetings in the fiscal year to June 30 were 19% more than Nevada’s combined take in the 11 months through May.  Bets at the club, set up in 1884 when Hong Kong was under British rule, exceeded those in the U.S. gambling hub in fiscal 2012 for the first time in about a decade.

The Jockey Club is seeking to raise sales further by keeping more Hong Kong residents from taking the one-hour ferry ride to Macau and through revenue-sharing agreements, CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said.  The goal is to lure back about a third of the HK$26 billion Hong Kong residents bet in Macau the past year, he said.

CHINA JUNE NEW YUAN LOANS CNY860.5 BILLION; ANALYSTS EXPECTED CNY800 BILLION NASDAQ

Chinese financial institutions issued 860.5 billion yuan ($140 billion) of new yuan loans in June, up from CNY667.4 billion in May.  This was above economists' expectations, which had forecast June's newly issued yuan loans at CNY800 billion.

Total social financing, a broader measurement of credit in the economy, came to CNY1.04 trillion in June, down from CNY1.19 trillion in May. Total social financing in June was the lowest monthly tally this year.  China's broadest measure of money supply, M2, was up 14.0% at the end of June compared with a year earlier, lower than the 15.8% rise at the end of May.  The figure was below the median 15.2% increase forecast by 20 economists polled by Dow Jones.

PACKAGE TOURS AND HOTEL OCCUPANCY RATE FOR MAY 2013 DSEC

Macau visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 7.7% YoY to 721,104 in May 2013.  Visitors arrivals in package tours mainly came from Mainland China (547,803), with 174,678 coming from Guangdong Province, followed by those from China (43,926); Hong Kong (30,048) and the Republic of Korea (25,011).

There were 99 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of May 2013, providing 28,065 rooms, up by 16.4% YoY; guest rooms of 5-star hotels accounted for 66.5% of the total. The average length of stay of guests decreased by 0.1 night YoY to 1.3 nights. 

PHILIPPINES FINDS OKADA MAY HAVE VIOLATED LAWS OVER CASINO LAND Bloomberg

Philippine investigators found evidence that Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada used companies that aren’t qualified to develop a casino in Manila.  A fact-finding panel recommended criminal charges against Okada and other parties for possible violations of a law against using front companies to own land. Separately, the panel didn’t find sufficient evidence to recommend charges on bribery, it said.  Claro Arellano, prosecutor general, said there will be a further investigation.

“We built the current land-owning scheme based on advice from the Philippines’ prominent lawyers, so our understanding is that it’s legal,” Nobuyuki Horiuchi, a spokesman for Universal Entertainment.