Last week, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, the gaming flagship of tycoon Stanley Ho, issued its first set of results as a publicly traded company, recording an 8 per cent increase in first-half net profit to HK$571m ($73m). In doing so Mr Ho adhered to one of the cardinal rules of corporate reporting – do not disappoint the market.

In spite of a 4.5 per cent year-on-year fall in revenues, SJM slightly exceeded the profit guidance it gave investors ahead of the company's July initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

It did help that SJM's targets were modest to begin with. The company's revenue and profit both fell in the three years prior to its listing, and it did not promise a miraculous turnround upon listing. Mr Ho may have waited almost 50 years to submit his gaming operations to public scrutiny – he was first given monopoly rights to the then Portuguese colony's gambling sector in 1962 – but the 86-year-old tycoon has clearly mastered the art of managing expectations.