\nHoward Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal <\/p>\n
\tStop the presses. Steve Wynn declared Las Vegas is on the road to recovery Thursday.<\/p>\n
\tAt the outset of a first-quarter conference call with analysts, the Wynn Resorts Ltd. chairman and CEO said he was \u201cfeeling good about Las Vegas, better than I had in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWynn based his opinion on the company\u2019s results from Wynn Las Vegas and Encore during the three-month period that ended March 31.<\/p>\n
\tThe resorts\u2019 overall revenue total \u2014 $380.9 million \u2014 was a 1.5 percent decline from a year ago and accounted for just 25 percent of the company\u2019s overall first quarter revenue of $1.51 billion.<\/p>\n
\tIt was the nontraditional reporting numbers that Wall Street uses to gauge profitability that caused Wynn to proclaim the Strip\u2019s recovery.<\/p>\n
\tThe average daily room rate at the two resorts increased 6.2 percent to $275 per night. Revenue per available room, often referred to as RevPar, grew 12.6 percent to $214.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThat makes us the most profitable hotel in Las Vegas,\u201d Wynn said. \u201cLas Vegas is growing into the additional capacity that it added in the past. CityCenter and Encore opened at the worst possible time in the national economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWhile other gaming industry CEOs have said the Strip was on the road to recovery, Wynn was reluctant to do so.<\/p>\n
\tUntil Thursday.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI see Las Vegas getting a footing that it hasn\u2019t in the past,\u201d Wynn said.<\/p>\n
\tStill, Wynn Resorts is a company that relies on Macau.<\/p>\n
\tFueled by its two Macau casinos, Wynn Resorts said its net income for the first quarter was $226.9 million, or $2.22 per share. A year ago, the company\u2019s net income was $203 million or $2 per share. Wynn\u2019s overall revenue increased 9.8 percent over the 2013 first quarter.<\/p>\n
\tIn Macau, the revenue produced by Wynn Macau and Encore at Wynn Macau increased 14.2 percent to $1.13 billion.<\/p>\n
\tDuring the conference call, Wynn executives focused much of the discussion toward Macau.<\/p>\n
\tThe company is building the $4 billion Wynn Palace on Cotai that is expected to open in 2016. The 1,700-room hotel-casino includes a performance lake, meeting space, spa, retail offerings, and restaurants.<\/p>\n
\tWynn described the property as \u201can entertainment experience from outside\u201d with features like flower sculpture of a 25-foot-tall Faberg\u00e9 egg and restaurants that have theaters with full stages.<\/p>\n
\tThe property, \u201cwill be the photo-op of South China. And that\u2019s just to get everybody in,\u201d Wynn said.<\/p>\n
\tA second phase will more than double the size of the hotel with all-suite product.<\/p>\n
\tMeanwhile, the company is now re-configuring of the original casino inside Wynn Macau so it doesn\u2019t lose business to the new resort. Wynn said the changes will be completed before the opening of Wynn Paradise.<\/p>\n
\tWynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands Corp. and MGM Resorts International are all building new resorts on Cotai in order to increase their footing in the world\u2019s largest casino market, which produced $45.2 billion in gaming revenue last year.<\/p>\n
\tWynn credited his Macau casino rivals, saying \u201cour competitors have lifted the game. It caused us to lift our standards as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHowever, a question about the company\u2019s prospects with winning a casino license in Japan \u2014 which is considering legalizing gaming \u2014 Wynn was gracious toward the chances of other companies with one exception, Caesars Entertainment Corp.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThey have other problems. Money problems,\u201d Wynn said.<\/p>\n
\tSeparately, Reuters reported that Universal Entertainment Corp. and its billionaire founder Kazuo Okada filed a criminal complaint against Wynn Resorts and Steve Wynn in Japan on allegations of defamation.<\/p>\n
\tThe complaint is the latest salvo in a long-running feud between the two former business partners.<\/p>\n
\tUniversal said in a statement it submitted the complaint with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on April 24, accusing the casino operator and Wynn of \u201cdefamation, harm to public trust and circulation of rumors\u201d in relation to the publication of an investigation into Universal\u2019s conduct in the Philippines.<\/p>\n
\tThe investigation was commissioned by Wynn and made public in early 2012.<\/p>\n
\tIn an emailed statement, Wynn said the criminal complaint was an attempt by Okada \u201cto create a distraction from the investigations pending against him.\u201d<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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