Reports are surfacing that MGM Resorts intends to sell the Mirage to Starwood Capital.

Mirage

Steve Wieczynski of Stifel says the sale could be the first of several by MGM as it tries to get proper value for its Las Vegas properties. He also notes the sale would be logical given that the Mirage is isolated from other MGM properties on the Strip, most of which are in the mile-long run from Bellagio south to Mandalay Bay that includes CityCenter, Monte Carlo, New York New York, Excalibur and Mandalay, plus MGM Grand across the Strip from NYNY.

Wieczynski says MGM ought to command at least 12 times trailing EBITDA for the Mirage given the well kept-up property will need little capital investment and that Penn National recently bought the lesser Tropicana property for 17 times EBITDA. He figures a price of $1bn to $1.5bn.

Cameron McKnight of Wells Fargo forecasts the Mirage will generate EBITDA of $145mn this year, implying a purchase price target of $1.4bn.

In buying Mirage, Starwood would be reinvesting some of the proceeds of its sale of Riviera to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which plans to implode the venerable property and build more convention and conference facilities on the site.

Source: Fantini’s Gaming Report