Sands China’s latest project will get underway in November after chairman Sheldon Adelson secured an extension earlier this week. Construction work on their latest Cotai location, parcel three, is likely to take around three years and Adelson, chairman of Sands China, said in a release: “We have already undertaken extensive design work on the project and plan to start construction by November. This property in particular will further enhance our growing MICE (meetings, incentive, conventions, exhibitions) business and will also feature a variety of amenities designed to encourage more families to visit Macau.”
The company has already applied for approval of the design plans and Sands’s Cotai venues will all be connected via a series of walkways and moving sidewalks. The deadline for this project, extended earlier this week, now runs until April 2016.
One investment bank has raised its expectations on Galaxy Entertainment Group after finding out about the company’s next project. Morgan Stanley raised its price target to HK$27 from HK$23.50 after getting the heads up on the second phase of Galaxy Macau – which is slated to open by mid-2015. Analysts Praveen K. Choudhary and Katherine Sun wrote in an investors note: “We expect continued improvement in the mass segment to drive growth higher than peers”. Another reason for their confidence is that Galaxy should be the first to open a post-Sands Cotai Central venue, something that could add as much as HK$3.70 to the value of each share.
Consumer confidence in Macau has dropped by around four points to 84.9 out of 200 in the second quarter. Macau Business reports that house prices were the main trigger for the drop, in the survey run by the Macau University of Science and Technology. High inflation was also a factor in the poll of 1,000 residents over the age of 18.
