Sands China’s EBITDA Loss Widened in Q2 on COVID-19 Outbreaks

Sands China’s second-quarter LBITDA widened to USD 110 million from negative USD 11 million in the prior quarter, making it the worst quarter since Macao reopened its border with mainland China in September 2020. This was largely due to a number of city lockdowns in mainland China since March 2021, and Macao was also hit by a new wave of COVID-19 outbreaks since mid-June, leading to forced closure of casinos from July 11. We expect gaming revenue to remain at a depressed level in July. Although Macao plans to partially ease its COVID-19 lockdown measures and reopen casinos from July 23, we think China’s “zero-COVID-19” strategy and highly stringent anti-pandemic measures will continue to hinder Macao’s tourism demand and near-term visibility of a sustainable recovery of Macao is still low.