Gaming | Grand Lisboa Palace to receive operating permit soon: SJM

The Grand Lisboa Palace integrated resort, owned by local gaming operator SJM Holdings Ltd (SJM), has passed final government inspections and is expected to receive its operating licensing soon. The news was relayed by the company’s vice chairman, CEO, and executive director Ambrose So in SJM’s annual report.
In the report released late last week regarding new developments soon to begin operation in Cotai, So said, “At Grand Lisboa Palace, we have passed several of the final government inspections, and we expect to receive our operating permit soon.”
In the same report, the company reaffirmed its previous intentions to open the Cotai development during the first half of 2021. So added that certainty regarding this timeframe would help ease the pressure currently faced by the company from retaining a large number of staff members considered unnecessary for the operations of the other casino and hotel venues of SJM due to the drop in visitors.
“The opening of the Grand Lisboa Palace will relieve some of the cost pressures on our existing operation, as we will be able to transfer a large number of current employees to the new property.”
The Grand Lisboa Palace project is comprised of three separate hotels, including the Grand Lisboa Palace Hotel, the Palazzo Versace Hotel, and the Karl Lagerfeld Hotel, adding in aggregate almost 2,000 new hotel rooms to Cotai.
Along with the casino, the development also includes meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) venues, dining, and entertainment venues and a shopping arcade.
In a recent report, investment bank JP Morgan hinted that while the casino venues and some of the hotel rooms will open by the end of June, other venues within the development are unlikely to open until later this year or even early next year.
Important factors in the potential postponement would be the progress of Covid-19 containment and the recovery of in-bound figures of tourists to Macau.
SJM posted a net loss of over HKD3 billion in 2020 and reported a drop in revenue by around 78% in 2020 when compared with the previous year.