\nHoward Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal <\/p>\n
\tTwo Wall Street analysts said in research notes Wednesday that MGM Resorts International may be considering selling The Mirage to focus on other development aspects for the Strip casino giant.<\/p>\n
\tThe reports said MGM Resorts could sell the hotel-casino to Starwood Capital for between $1 billion and $1.5 billion.<\/p>\n
\tA spokesman for Starwood, which sold the Riviera to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority in February for $182.5 million, declined comment.<\/p>\n
\tWells Fargo Securities gaming analyst Cameron McKnight told investors a possible transaction \u201cmakes sense to us.\u201d He said MGM \u201chas taken its international marketing team and players out of (The Mirage).\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAnalysts said a sale of The Mirage was possible because MGM Resorts has focused most of its recent attention and development dollars on the Strip\u2019s southern end, where it is building the Park project between the New York-New York and Monte Carlo, a $350 million sports arena, and is expanding the Mandalay Bay convention complex. The company is expected to change the name of Monte Carlo and is also exploring other nongaming attractions at its south Strip properties.<\/p>\n
\tMGM is also spending billions of dollars on building new hotel-casinos in Maryland, Massachusetts and Macau.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cMGM has reprogrammed other assets recently in need of (capital expenditures) in the south end of the Strip, but hasn\u2019t done much with Mirage,\u201d McKnight said. \u201cMGM has a heavy development pipeline so a sale could free up some resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tStifel Nicolaus Capital Markets gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski said \u201cMGM appears to be in a position in which it is thinking about its real estate holdings more strategically.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe company acquired The Mirage, which was originally built by Steve Wynn, when it bought Mirage Resorts in 2000 for $6.4 billion. In 2009, MGM Resorts sold The Mirage\u2019s sister resort Treasure Island to Phil Ruffin for $755 million, leading to speculation the neighboring property would also be sold. At the time, MGM Resorts was having financial issues as it sought to complete the CityCenter complex.<\/p>\n
\tIn addition to The Mirage, MGM Resorts also owns Circus Circus on the Strip\u2019s north end.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe Mirage now sits more isolated away from other MGM properties,\u201d Wieczynski said. \u201cThis has probably affected business levels as MGM\u2019s M Life rewards program has grown over the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIn an email Wednesday, MGM spokesman Clark Dumont said, \u201cWe do not comment on rumor and speculation based on \u2018multiple sources\u2019 that are unnamed, and \u2018press reports\u2019 that do not exist, to my\/our knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tA possible sale of The Mirage was first reported early this week by the VitalVegas.com website, which cited \u201crumors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWieczynski said MGM \u201cmay have been presented with a very attractive offer from Starwood.\u201d The analyst said he saw construction activity at The Mirage in the spring to reduce high-end gaming space and add a center bar at the resort.<\/p>\n
\tWieczynski said a sale of The Mirage could could lead to the company selling other properties.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cMGM (is looking) to pursue strategies aimed to have the true market value of its assets more appropriately reflected in the company\u2019s trading multiple and to strategically raise capital in advance of scheduled new resort development openings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Howard Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal Two Wall Street analysts said in research notes Wednesday that MGM Resorts International may be considering selling The Mirage to focus on other development aspects for the Strip casino giant. The reports said MGM Resorts…<\/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-9025","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\/9025","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=9025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}