MGM Resorts International plans to build multiple properties in Macau as it expands in Asia.
“We are starting to assert ourselves” in Macau, CEO Jim Murren said in a Bloomberg television interview. “We will have more properties in Asia over time.”
MGM recently reported a wider second-quarter loss after writing down its CityCenter joint venture as room rates bottomed. CityCenter, the US$8.5bn hotels, condos and casino venture with Dubai World, opened in Las Vegas in December after skirting potential bankruptcy. It now has an equity value of $2.65bn on the partners’ books.
MGM’s Macau venture has the smallest market share of the six casino operators in the only city in China where they are legal. Macau casino revenue surged 70 per cent in July from a year earlier to $2bn, and has doubled in the three years ended December.
“The month of June was a turning point for us” as revenue at MGM’s available Las Vegas rooms increased year-over-year for the first time since October 2007, driven by luxury resort gains, Murren, who’s also company chairman, said in a separate interview yesterday. “That cut us deeply in 2008 and 2009, and now we’re starting to see a recovery.”
The venture with casino billionaire Stanley Ho’s daughter Pansy Ho, MGM Grand Paradise, on August 2 said it agreed to a $950m loan to refinance existing debt and provide added liquidity.
