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June 2, 2014
Closing Black cab licence bid sets new record
Portugal: Troika out, EC steps in
The Transport Bureau received 999 bids in total for the auction of 200 licences for the conventional black taxis, where the highest bid amounted to over 1.2 million patacas (US$152,526) – more than the highest bid at 1.1 million patacas cast for the same 8-year conventional taxi licence in 2012. Within this year, these 200 new taxis will be joining the existing fleet of 1,080 black taxis to serve on the streets, the Bureau confirmed.
The European Commission (EC) is going to present today half-yearly specific recommendations for each country and Portugal is going to be included for the first time as it has just finished its bailout package. Portugal is now going to get specific recommendations from the Commissions, apart from the vigilance programme, and a Community source told Lusa that this would involve Brussels sending regular missions, but these would not “involve adopting any additional measures to those already in place”.
Crimea adopts ruble C DICJ gets out the dictionary The gaming regulator said that it will soon announce the definition of mass gaming floors and VIP gaming areas ahead of the smoking ban on Oct 6 Stephanie Lai
sw.lai@macaubusinessdaily.com
T
he Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau will soon announce the definition of mass-market gaming floors and VIP gaming areas in anticipation of exercising the full smoking ban on local casinos’ mass gaming floors starting from October 6, Bureau director Manuel Joaquim das Neves told reporters at the weekend. The Health Bureau announced on May 15 that smoking will be banned on the mass gaming floors of all casinos here starting October 6 but that gaming operators may install smoking lounges without gaming equipment on the floors. Also, after that date, smoking zones inside VIP rooms will still be allowed. Speaking to media on the sidelines of the SJM Macau Derby, Gaming
Inspection and Coordination Bureau director Manuel Joaquim das Neves said that his Bureau is conducting an internal analysis and discussion on the distinction between mass-market gaming floors and VIP gaming floors. The Bureau is also engaging legal consultants to study the issue, Mr. Neves said. Recently, Angela Leong On Kei, executive director of SJM Holdings Ltd, raised doubts about the definition of VIP rooms and mass gaming floors. There have also not been any written rules announced by the authority on how it will handle the ‘premium mass’ segment, in which gamblers can play with big bets as VIP gamblers on mass gaming floors without requesting credit from junket operators. Current regulations permit gaming operators to
set up smoking areas of up to fifty percent of the gaming floor space in casinos. Attending the same event as Mr. Neves on Saturday, SJM Holdings Ltd chief executive Ambrose So Shu Fai remarked that it was “too early to predict” at the moment how the smoking ban on mass gaming floors will affect gaming revenue. Mr. So added that the design of setting up smoking lounges in the casinos operating under the licence of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, S.A. (SJM) has already been completed, and is pending government approval. He expressed confidence that the installation of smoking lounges in most of the casinos operating under SJM will be completed before the full smoking ban on mass gaming floors comes into force on October 6.
Studio City Finance reports paper loss of US$13.5mln Net loss in the first quarter of this year was US$8 million less than in the same period last year Sara Farr
sarafarr@macaubusinessdaily.com
S
tudio City Finance Ltd, a unit of Macau casino developer Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd, says it made a net loss on paper of US$13.5 million (108 million patacas) in the first quarter of this year. According to the firm’s filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, this was ‘primarily due to higher interest capitalisation upon our continuous development of Studio City.’ Studio City Finance has issued US$825 million-worth of senior
notes with an 8.5 percent coupon, due to mature in 2020 to help fund the resort’s construction. The project also has a term loan and revolving credit facility amounting to just under HK$10.85 billion (US$1.4 billion). Interest expenses, which are the net of capitalised interest, were US$2.2 million in the first quarter of the year, compared to US$12.9 million a year earlier. The firm said the decrease of US$10.7 million was ‘primarily
rimea moves to the ruble in a further step toward integration with Russia, which annexed the Black Sea peninsula in a move Ukraine and its allies the U.S. and European Union have denounced as illegal. Crimean shops will no longer use double pricing in hryvnia and rubles, and all transactions will be carried out solely in the Russian currency, news service ITAR-TASS reported today, while in Kiev, supporters of the Maidan movement rallied. Ukraine’s government is facing new demonstrations there after the city’s authorities tried to remove the tent camp that was the centre of deadly protests that ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych in February. The currency switch comes as Ukrainian forces battle to stop proRussian separatists from carving off more territory in the country’s east. Leaders in Kiev and the U.S. and EU accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of encouraging the tumult by sending cash, weapons and manpower to the separatists, while Russia says Ukraine should stop targeting its own citizens. Bloomberg
due to a higher interest capitalisation of US$10.1 million associated with the Studio City construction and development projects.’ It was also attributable to lower interest expenses on Studio City’s land use right, which costs US$600,000. The property’s pre-opening costs in the first three months of the year were US$900,000 compared to US$600,000 in the same period last year. Meanwhile, Melco Crown Entertainment (MCE) Finance Ltd announced in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that total net revenues for the first quarter this year increased 19.2 percent to US$1.15 billion. This was primarily due to ‘improved group-wide revenues across all gaming segments, particularly in the mass market table games segment,’ the filing reads. In addition, MCE Finance Ltd’s net income was US$252.6 million in the first three months of the year compared to US$103.4 million a year earlier.