Permira Advisers has sold another raft of shares in Galaxy Entertainment Group a year after originally diluting their shares down significantly. Finance Asia report the UK-based private equity firm sold 278.8 million shares at HK$21 each. It represents around 6.7 percent of Galaxy’s entire share capital and around 53 percent of the Permira stake in the business. They were sold to a small number of investors, some of whom already hold Galaxy shares. The group first invested in Galaxy in October 2007 when it bought a 20 percent stake. That was diluted down to 12.8 percent this time last year and goes to show the equity firm is trying to cash in on the lucrative market before any downturn takes place.
Sands China has increased its control of the Cotai strip mass market. Union Gaming Group report that from mid-July to mid-August the company’s properties in Cotai saw 69 percent of all visitors to the strip – an increase of 2 percent over the previous month. Galaxy Macau saw a drop from 7 percent to 5 percent suggesting that Sands had indeed attracted the new numbers from Galaxy. As for the enclave as a whole, Sands is in the lead with 38.3 percent of visitors. SJM Holdings holds second with 28.3 percent with Galaxy Entertainment Group the last of the big guns with 20.2 percent. Back even further is Melco Crown Entertainment with 4.7 percent, MGM China on 4.3 percent and Wynn Macau brings up the rear with 4.1 percent.
Macau’s casino properties used over double the amount of electricity of their residential counterparts in the last period. In the least surprising news of the day, the gambling industry’s electricity consumption rates increased by 18.5 percent in Q2 2012. Official data from the government shows that casinos used 439 million kWh between April and June – around double the amount used by Macau households in the same timeframe.
