Citigroup: Maintains "Buy" rating for Galaxy Entertainment (00027.HK) with a target price of HKD 44.

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, Citigroup released a research report stating that Galaxy Entertainment (00027.HK) saw its net revenue decline by 2% year-on-year in the second quarter to HKD 11.835 billion, with adjusted EBITDA dropping 5% year-on-year to HKD 3.38 billion, roughly in line with the bank's and market expectations. During this period, the group's EBITDA was negatively impacted by poor gaming luck, reducing EBITDA by approximately HKD 21 million; excluding this factor, the normalized adjusted EBITDA profit margin improved by 0.9 percentage points year-on-year to 31.4%. The board declared an interim dividend of HKD 0.9 per share (compared to HKD 0.7 in the same period last year), implying a payout ratio of about 75% (compared to about 58% in the same period last year), which Citigroup views as a positive surprise. The bank maintains a "Buy" rating with a target price of HKD 44.