Kingston Financial Group issues profit warning after low Macau visitor numbers

Though the business is also involved in non-gaming areas such as investment banking, its steep revenue decline was mostly due to its Macau hotel and gaming operations, as low visitor numbers to the territory hindered its ability to bring in revenue.

“After the virus outbreak, the number of tourists visiting Macau dropped sharply,” it said.

Macau faced strict travel restrictions for almost all of Kingston’s financial year, which led to low revenue for all operators in the territory. The territory lifted its last travel restrictions for mainland China on 23 February.

In each of the 12 months from April 2020 to March 2021, total gambling revenue in Macau was less than MOP10bn ($1.25bn/€1.05bn/£898m) and was down more than 65% from 2019 levels. For the 2020 calendar year, revenue was down 79.3% to to MOP60.44bn, with more than half of the revenue that was recording coming between January and March.