Global Gaming and Casinos Industry Specialist, Casino Business Review LLC

Howard J Klein

Global Gaming and Casinos Industry Specialist

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>Macau subsidiaries of parent gaming operators produce the bulk of revenue of group wide EBITDA but do not always reflect that in their prices and prospects.</li>
<li>Sands China currently has a 23% share of the total Macau market. If it merely maintains that share, our projected GGR growth could take its revenue to around US$11bn by 2021.</li>
<li>On some discounted free cash flow models the stock appears to be fully valued, but from our industry-centric view, it is undervalued going forward around 35%.</li>
</ul>


Macau subsidiaries of parent gaming operators produce the bulk of revenue of group wide EBITDA but do not always reflect that in their prices and prospects.
Sands China currently has a 23% share of the total Macau market. If it merely maintains that share, our projected GGR growth could take its revenue to around US$11bn by 2021.
On some discounted free cash flow models the stock appears to be fully valued, but from our industry-centric view, it is undervalued going forward around 35%.


Sands China Ltd.: Is the Stock Undervalued in the Shadow of the Parent?

Investment Advisors, JL Warren Capital

Junheng Li

Investment Advisors

JL Warren Capital

JL Warren Capital LLC is a leading independent equity research firm focused on Chinese companies and listed multinationals in China. We employ a bottom-up research approach that takes great care to avoid the acquisition of material non-public information. Through investigative due diligence including channel surveys and interviews, our research helps clients to pinpoint the dislocations in the market.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Macau printed much better than expected June GGR of 5.9% YoY, due to a combination of positive factors:  1) one big spender in VIP room rolled as much as ~10 bn HKD in June (either the guy or the junket operator should have gone bankrupt but the operator is still in business so we estimate that the player lost lots of money so unlikely to return Macau soon); 2) both VIP and mass segments were negatively impacted by 2018 World Cup Russia from June 14 to Jul 15, setting low comp for June 2019; 3) unprecedented HK protests in scale and duration starting on June 9th turned off mainland tourists who consequently have deprioritized HK as an outbound destination, shifting demand to Macau.

Macau printed much better than expected June GGR of 5.9% YoY, due to a combination of positive factors:  1) one big spender in VIP room rolled as much as ~10 bn HKD in June (either the guy or the junket operator should have gone bankrupt but the operator is still in business so we estimate that the player lost lots of money so unlikely to return Macau soon); 2) both VIP and mass segments were negatively impacted by 2018 World Cup Russia from June 14 to Jul 15, setting low comp for June 2019; 3) unprecedented HK protests in scale and duration starting on June 9th turned off mainland tourists who consequently have deprioritized HK as an outbound destination, shifting demand to Macau. 

Macau Update: Individual Whale Boosting June VIP; WC 2018 Low Base, Mass Benefiting from HK Protests

Since May 10 when Chinese Vice Premier Liu He left the Washington without a trade deal with the US, nor any plan for future talks, both countries have been heating up the rhetoric’s against each other at home, diminishing the public’s perception of a deal in near future.   We believe that the trade talks broke down due to highly principal issues.  China were indeed to comply with the signed “contract” on paper, its state interest in strategic industries and state-owned-enterprises would be severely compromised – something that Chins is not ready nor willing to do for now.  What’s more, the complex friction within the Party, and opposition from the conservatives, played a key role in Xi’s hardening position against the US.  While projecting a hardline to the domestic audience, China on the other hand, has NOT engaged any significant counter measures since Trump’s somewhat unexpected tariff hike of 25% on one third of all Chinese products effectively on May 10th.

Since May 10 when Chinese Vice Premier Liu He left the Washington without a trade deal with the US, nor any plan for future talks, both countries have been heating up the rhetoric’s against each other at home, diminishing the public’s perception of a deal in near future.   We believe that the trade talks broke down due to highly principal issues.  China were indeed to comply with the signed “contract” on paper, its state interest in strategic industries and state-owned-enterprises would be severely compromised – something that Chins is not ready nor willing to do for now.  What’s more, the complex friction within the Party, and opposition from the conservatives, played a key role in Xi’s hardening position against the US.  While projecting a hardline to the domestic audience, China on the other hand, has NOT engaged any significant counter measures since Trump’s somewhat unexpected tariff hike of 25% on one third of all Chinese products effectively on May 10th.

Rising Nationalism Propaganda by State Media, China Macro Data 4M 2019

Our checks indicate that during the first 5 days in May, Macau GGR reached ~1 billion MOP, up by HDD (high-double-digits) year-over-year. This was driven by the extra one day for the labor-day holiday this year, strong mass visitations from mainland and very high VIP rolling.  We estimate that the average rolling amount in VIP rooms reached ~5.5 billion -6.0 billion MOP per day per table, up ~15% YoY (same period in 2018).  The extra day provided in the holiday is to stimulate consumer spending by the government, a similar measure as the income tax cut effective on Oct 1st, 2018.In April, Macau GGR was down 8.3% YoY, dragged down by ~25% decline in VIP GGR.  The VIP luck factor was ~3% last minute, similar to same period in 2018.  Rolling demand was negatively impacted by Beijing’s tightened implementation of capital outflow controls, and crackdown of underground banking and related crimes.

Our checks indicate that during the first 5 days in May, Macau GGR reached ~1 billion MOP, up by HDD (high-double-digits) year-over-year. This was driven by the extra one day for the labor-day holiday this year, strong mass visitations from mainland and very high VIP rolling.  We estimate that the average rolling amount in VIP rooms reached ~5.5 billion -6.0 billion MOP per day per table, up ~15% YoY (same period in 2018).  The extra day provided in the holiday is to stimulate consumer spending by the government, a similar measure as the income tax cut effective on Oct 1st, 2018.In April, Macau GGR was down 8.3% YoY, dragged down by ~25% decline in VIP GGR.  The VIP luck factor was ~3% last minute, similar to same period in 2018.  Rolling demand was negatively impacted by Beijing’s tightened implementation of capital outflow controls, and crackdown of underground banking and related crimes. 

Macau Gaming: Strong Labor Day Holiday GGR

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

We believe the S&amp;P 500, STOXX Europe 600, MSCI ACWI ex-U.S., EAFE, and MSCI China are pulling back to support at their prior breakout levels -- levels we believe will hold. Tech remains our favorite Sector globally. Additional attractive cyclical areas in which to add exposure at current levels include Financials in Europe, autos and auto parts stocks, and casinos and gaming in Macau... see report for a technical appraisal of all major markets and a collection of actionable stocks.

We believe the S&amp;P 500, STOXX Europe 600, MSCI ACWI ex-U.S., EAFE, and MSCI China are pulling back to support at their prior breakout levels -- levels we believe will hold. Tech remains our favorite Sector globally. Additional attractive cyclical areas in which to add exposure at current levels include Financials in Europe, autos and auto parts stocks, and casinos and gaming in Macau... see report for a technical appraisal of all major markets and a collection of actionable stocks.

Global Equity Strategy: Major Indexes at Logical Support

Hong Kong

Sands China Ltd. develops, owns, and operates integrated resorts, retail malls, and casinos. The Company also manages convention and exhibition halls in Macau.

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Sands China (1928 HK)

Sands China Ltd.: Is the Stock Undervalued in the Shadow of the Parent?

Macau subsidiaries of parent gaming operators produce the bulk of revenue of group wide EBITDA but do not always reflect that in their prices and...

Howard J Klein

Macau Update: Individual Whale Boosting June VIP; WC 2018 Low Base, Mass Benefiting from HK Protests

Macau printed much better than expected June GGR of 5.9% YoY, due to a combination of positive factors: 1) one big spender in VIP room rolled as...

JL Warren Capital

Rising Nationalism Propaganda by State Media, China Macro Data 4M 2019

Since May 10 when Chinese Vice Premier Liu He left the Washington without a trade deal with the US, nor any plan for future talks, both countries...

JL Warren Capital

Macau Gaming: Strong Labor Day Holiday GGR

Our checks indicate that during the first 5 days in May, Macau GGR reached ~1 billion MOP, up by HDD (high-double-digits) year-over-year. This was...

JL Warren Capital

Global Equity Strategy: Major Indexes at Logical Support

We believe the S&P 500, STOXX Europe 600, MSCI ACWI ex-U.S., EAFE, and MSCI China are pulling back to support at their prior breakout levels --...

Vermilion Research

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