MGM Mirage plans a second Macau casino resort and may pursue additional projects in the Chinese gambling enclave, Chief Executive Terry Lanni said on Tuesday at the Reuters Hotels and Casinos Summit 2007.
MGM plans to open its first Macau property, – MGM Grand Macau – in the fourth quarter on a 10.5-acre piece of land where most of the casinos in Macau are located. The second site announced on Tuesday is slightly larger and is in the Cotai Strip area, where Las Vegas Sands and others are building a Las Vegas-style strip.
Both the new Macau projects are owned by MGM Grand Paradise, a joint venture between MGM and Pansy Ho Chiu-king, who is also managing director of Shun Tak Holdings, a Hong Kong conglomerate involved in shipping, property, hotels and investments.
“I don’t think we should stop at two … I think there will be further opportunities,” Lanni said of Macau. MGM Grand Paradise said it has been engaged in discussions with the Macau government regarding the project and intends to submit plans for it later this year.
The 50-50 joint venture is building its first casino resort, the MGM Grand Macau, on a waterfront site on the Macau peninsula at a cost of about $1.1 billion. That resort is slated to have about 600 rooms, suites and villas, 345 table games and 1,035 slot machines. It is set to open by the end of this year.
The joint venture did not give any details when the second development might open.
Lanni said Nevada and New Jersey gambling regulators, which have yet to approve the partnership with Pansy Ho, will hold hearings on the issue in February and March.
“Ultimately, we expect the approval to be granted and believe MGM will be a strong competitor in Macau,” CIBC World Markets analyst David Katz said in a research note on Tuesday.
Chinese gambling revenue in Macau has already topped that of the Las Vegas Strip and is expected to keep growing over the next few years. Wall Street is forecasting Macau casino revenue, which hit $7 billion in 2006, to grow to anywhere from $10 billion to $15 billion by 2010.
U.S. casino operators Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands already have casinos open in Macau. Las Vegas Sands is set to open another casino, a “Venetian” resort, there later this year.
