Melco CEO acknowledges company experienced decline in market share in Macau in 2023

Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho Yau Lung acknowledged during Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd.’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday that the company’s market share in Macau had declined in 2023, which was a factor in the recent management changes.

Ho went on to say that David Sisk, the former chief operating officer of Macau resorts, resigned because of potentially excessive cost-cutting measures implemented in the wake of the Covid pandemic, which severely harmed the company’s operations and operational costs.

Ho emphasized that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) was equally as important as market share. The company reported adjusted property EBITDA for the fourth quarter of US$303.4 million, up 8.1 percent from the third quarter.

Melco Resorts appointed important executives in February to address these issues, including Linda Switzer as vice president of retail, Stefan Bollhalder as vice president of hotels and food and beverage for City of Dreams Macau, and Alidad Tash as executive vice president of analytics and gaming operations for Macau.

President Evan Winkler underlined the company’s focus on boosting gaming efficiency, enhancing the visitor experience, and optimizing resource allocation on the results call. Restructuring the sales team to focus more on the customer journey and experience is part of this.

When asked about potential expansions into other nations, such Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, Ho said that it was too soon considering the ongoing pandemic recovery. He said that although the company was investigating smaller potential ventures, larger initiatives like those in Thailand or the United Arab Emirates were still being explored.

In addition, Ho spoke about the lessons learned from exploring a potential business in Yokohama, Japan, which ultimately failed, highlighting the fact that researching new markets requires years of effort.

Original story by: GGRAsia