Macau gaming operator SJM Holdings expects to get up to 200 new live gaming tables for the opening of Grand Lisboa Palace casino resort on Cotai, which is the gaming property that the company plan to launch before the end of the first half 2021.

According to note from brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein, citing commentary from the SJM’s management following its first quarter earnings, “SJM has not yet had a table allocation” from the city’s government.

The brokerage added the SJM expected a new table allocation from the Macau government “similar to other recent Cotai property openings” which is around 150 to 200 tables.

Analysts said in their memo that SJM plans to open with 304 gaming tables which the brokerage estimated would be about 8% of Cotai-property table inventory, also with 1,034 slot games, about 8% of Cotai-market inventory in that category.

Macau has a table cap program in its market, that has been in place since 2013. It was designed by the local authorities in order to limit to 3% the compound annual growth in the number of new live gaming tables in the overall market, up to December 2022.

According to Sanford Bernstein, SJM aimed to open Grand Lisboa Palace “by end of June”. In a Tuesday filing, the casino firm stated it “anticipates” opening its resort scheme on Cotai “during the first half of 2021”.

The brokerage added: “The property will open in a limited capacity. Management expects to open with only 300 hotel rooms initially and limited retail.”

Once fully open, the entire property would have 1,892 rooms, which Sanford Bernstein suggested was also about 8% of Cotai market share.

However, the institution said it did not share SJM’s optimism that the new property “can achieve better than fair share on its gaming capacity”.

The analysts wrote: “We are very skeptical that this can be achieved at Grand Lisboa Palace… competition on Cotai is very strong and product offering is very competitive.”

Editing by Rachel Hu