Casino group Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd aims to resume dividend payment to shareholders in the second half of 2025, said on Tuesday the firm’s management on the call to discuss its third-quarter earnings.
“We would like to return to being a dividend-paying company,” stated Geoff Davis, Melco Resorts’ executive vice president and chief financial officer. “We think it’s potentially possible in the second half of next year.”
The firm last paid a dividend in February 2020.
Melco Resorts’ management stressed that, however, debt reduction and de-levering were its priorities in terms of allocation of capital,
In that regard, Mr Davis stated that Melco Resorts had not set any net debt to earnings trigger for dividend resumption. The decision on restarting payment of dividends to shareholders was “more of a holistic decision-making process”, he said.
Melco Resorts operates casinos in Macau, as well as in the Philippine capital Manila, and in Cyprus. The firm is involved in the development of a US$1-billion casino complex in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo.
As part of a process of returning value to shareholders, Melco Resorts would remain “opportunistic” regarding share repurchases, based on potential 온라인카지노사이트 identification by management of “dislocated share price” situations. But Mr Davis said it was was “unlikely” for Melco Resorts to institute a formal share buy-back programme.
In August, Melco Resorts announced the buying-back of just under 8.34 million shares of its own stock on the open market, for an aggregate consideration – before expenses – of about US$44.5 million.
Lawrence Ho Yau Lung, Melco Resorts chairman and chief executive, said during Tuesday’s conference call that the firm’s revamped loyalty programme – launched in September and including a new tier for top premium mass players – was “starting to show the benefits of increasing efficiency” in player reinvestment.
Mr Ho also made reference to a number of recent developments at the firm’s Macau properties, including the opening of a signature premium slot area at City of Dreams at the launch of a themed slot area at Studio City in partnership with gaming technology supplier Aristocrat Gaming.
“We also installed new large scale interactive LED screens at Studio City to activate the area at the main entrance in front of the casino,” he added.
“The hard work that we put in over the last couple of quarters, since some of the management reshuffle, is starting – at the very beginning – to pay off,” said Melco Resorts’ CEO, stating the goal of returning the firm to the top 3 Macau operators in terms of gross gaming revenue share.
He highlighted that the group had enjoyed a “very strong” October performance in its Macau operations, wit a “great” October Golden Week performance.
“Our mass drop was up more than 20 percent year over year. More significantly, we had a number of record mass drop days at both City of Dreams and Studio City during that period.”