\nStephanie Wong, Bloomberg <\/p>\n
\tBillionaire Steve Wynn finally feels confident enough to set an opening date for his second casino in Macau, months after complaining that uncertainty plagued the Chinese city amid a gambling downturn.<\/p>\n
\tWynn Palace resort will open March 25 next year along the Cotai Strip in the world\u2019s largest gambling hub, Wynn Resorts Ltd. chairman and founder said Wednesday, after the casino operator\u2019s Hong Kong-listed unit reported earnings slumped 44 percent in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe\u2019re pretty sanguine at the moment, although anything is subject to change,\u201d the 73-year-old Wynn said in a conference call. \u201cThe government happily gave us 100 percent of our last and final request for construction labor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe casino tycoon in April called for clarity from Macau\u2019s government on its plans for the gambling industry, and on the number of workers he could get to finish building Wynn Palace. The city\u2019s casino operators are struggling with a yearlong downturn after China\u2019s crackdown on graft hurt gambling by high rollers, with June casino revenue plunging 36 percent.<\/p>\n
\tSmall Positive<\/p>\n
\tOperators are betting new resorts in Macau would pull them out of the doldrums by integrating more attractions to lure Chinese tourists. Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd., a joint venture between billionaires Lawrence Ho and James Packer, will announce an opening date for its new project Monday.<\/p>\n
\tWynn Macau Ltd.\u2019s adjusted property earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell to $173.4 million in the second quarter, in line with a median estimate of $173.5 million from six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n
\tThe parent, which relies on Macau for about 60 percent of revenue, reported a 72 percent drop in second quarter net income to $56.5 million as betting fell in both the Chinese city and Las Vegas. Wynn Macau shares fell 1.5 percent to HK$15.46 as of the mid-day break in Hong Kong trading.<\/p>\n
\tThe announcement of Wynn Palace\u2019s opening date is \u201canother small positive for the group,\u201d said Tim Craighead, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst. \u201cThis may be an indication that some of the policy challenges are starting to soften.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tRich Stream<\/p>\n
\tMacau\u2019s government relaxed visa rules for Chinese nationals last month allowing them to stay in the territory longer and more frequently. The government is also considering whether to ease smoking restrictions on gambling floors.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe don\u2019t expect the market to show any signs of momentum until we get a few new properties opened,\u201d Aaron Fischer, an analyst at CLSA Ltd., said in a note Thursday. \u201cWe believe the focus should be on getting Wynn Palace opened on time\u201d with less focus on the VIPs and more on tourist attractions.<\/p>\n
\tThe company has seen a very rich stream of customers in the business class of the mass segment after the easing of travel restrictions, Wynn Macau Executive Director Ian Coughlan said on the conference call.<\/p>\n
\tStill, Wynn the founder sounded a note of caution on Macau.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cMacau continues to be more of a question than a certainty as we head through 2015 and toward our opening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\t\u2013With assistance from Annie Lee in Hong Kong and Rob Golum in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stephanie Wong, Bloomberg Billionaire Steve Wynn finally feels confident enough to set an opening date for his second casino in Macau, months after complaining that uncertainty plagued the Chinese city amid a gambling downturn. Wynn Palace resort will open March…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}