Inside Asian Gaming

IAG MAY 2020年5月 亞博匯 37 專欄 Bay, the postponement of the Olympics until 2021 and the recent quarantine orders enacted by PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe in certain prefectures, Japan continues to ask the question of how its integrated resort process will move forward. As of the date of this article, the Central Government continues to stay on pace, with the acceptance of applications set to occur between January 2021 and July 2021. Even as the industry faces its greatest challenge, prefectures have announced the details of their processes as they continue to move forward to meet this Central Government deadline. As the process unfolds, one of the key questions that will be answered is how interested operators are in new markets given the fact they are burning through cash to keep their properties open around the globe. The current environment is impacting their overall liquidity and balance sheets, affecting each potential bidder’s ability to commit to a project. Every prefecture that plans to submit to the Central Government will look into the financial suitability of these organizations as well as their long-term ability to finance a project that may in some cases reach US$10 billion or more in investment. In these unprecedented and uncertain times, one certainty is that operators will continue to draw down on debt to keep their operations functional. In some markets like Macau, where every one of the concessionaires has shown an interest in Japan, there is less control over operations as the “people quotient” is not as variable as in other markets. In other words, some of these companies in other markets such as the United States have furloughed their workers, while others have remained committed to paying their workforce during the Great Shutdown. These operators also face challenges as they try to reemerge and ramp up operations in a prudent fashion to meet market demand. Evaluation of balance sheets C OVID-19疫情爆發之後，世界繼續快速改變。今年二月 澳門賭場關閉，預示著博彩業開始遭到這種變化的強 烈衝擊。衝擊的後果像病毒一樣蔓延，已經擴散到整 個行業，幾乎覆蓋全球博彩業界的每個角落——從柬 埔寨到美國，從菲律賓到歐洲，包括在線業務和賭場。 行業繼續面臨著何時以及如何重新開放的挑戰，而營運商也在尋 找未來可能仍然存在的發展機會。而這機會首先集中在日本。 過去幾個月間，由於COVID-19的影響，日本自身也面臨著一 系列的挑戰。儘管近幾個月來有一系列事件佔據了各大媒體的頭 條新聞，包括飽受爭議的鑽石公主號郵輪停靠橫濱灣、奧運會被 推遲至2021年及日本首相安倍晉三近期於某些縣頒布了社交隔 離令，但日本仍在繼續尋求其綜合度假村發展之路應如何繼續向 前推進。 至本文發佈之日，日本政府仍按部就班，接受申請的日期仍 定在2021年1月至2021年7月之間。儘管IR行業面臨著極大的挑 戰，但各縣皆已經公佈了相關流程的細節，他們正在穩步推進，以 趕上日本政府的最後期限。 隨著這一流程的推進，需要解決的關鍵問題之一是，考慮到 目前全球的營運商都在燒錢以維持其物業的的營運，他們對於新 興市場的興趣究竟有多大。當前的環境正影響著他們的整體流動 性及資產負債表，以及每個潛在競標者參與項目的能力。每一個 計劃向日本政府提交申請的地區都將調查這些企業的財務適用 性及其能夠為一個項目提供長期資金支持的能力，甚至某些情況 下可能需要100億美元甚至更多的投資。 在這個前所未有的充滿著不確定的時代，有一點可以肯定的 是，運營商將繼續透支債務以保持正常的運營。在一些市場中，比