Lyon: Maintaining MGM China's (02282) “outperforming the market” rating and target price of HK$13.8, property EBITDA for the third quarter was 6% higher than expected

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Lyon released a research report stating that it will maintain MGM China's (02282) “outperform the market” rating and the target price of HK$13.8. The company's property EBITDA increased 1% year-on-year to $2,394 billion in the third quarter, 6% higher than the market and the bank's forecasts. The bank believes that the performance was driven by a higher than normal VIP room win rate, which brought an additional contribution of about 132 million yuan to EBITDA; the midfield win rate remained at 27.7% on a quarterly basis.

According to the bank, MGM China's third-quarter gaming revenue market share was 17.1%, higher than the bank's forecast of 16.8%, and further rose to 19.2% in September. The overall property EBITDA profit margin narrowed 1.1 percentage points year over year to 26.8%, in line with the company's goal of a higher 20% range; if the VIP room win rate factor is excluded, the normalized EBITDA profit margin is 25.7%. The newly acquired mainland hotel management business also brought a slight positive EBITDA contribution.