[ET Net News Agency, 20 January 2020] Daiwa Research lowered its target price for MGM
China (02282) to HK$14.81 from HK$15.65 and downgraded its rating to "outperform" from
"buy".
The research house said MGM China was removed from the MSCI Hong Kong equity index on 26
November 2019, due to its low public float. Daiwa believes the removal may have negatively
affected investors' confidence in the stock.
Daiwa said MGM Cotai saw VIP GGR gains sequentially, but it was purely due to favourable
luck as rolling chip volume dropped 19.1% in contrast to Melco (00200), which saw a
sequential gain in rolling chip volume. Hence, Daiwa thinks The Mansion's launch (on 22
March 2019) was ill-timed and did not see the expected level of demand from VIPs. As a
result, Daiwa believes the ramp-up of MGM Cotai will slow in 2020. (KL)