MGM hired five banks for planned us$ 500 million Hong Kong listing

BNP Paribas, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, HSBC, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have won the mandate for the long-awaited deal, sources said. The banks mentioned either declined to comment or were not immediately available. MGM was not available for a comment.

The sources declined to be identified because the details have not been officially announced. The listing is scheduled for the second half of 2010, one source said. If the planned float proceeds, it would be the third U.S. casino company since November to float its Macau operations on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

MGM, which has come close to defaulting on its debt, has only one casino property in Macau, the MGM Grand Macau, and has not shed light on its expansion plans.

Analysts have been skeptical about MGM achieving a high valuation for its Hong Kong listing on concerns of lack of expansion plans in the enclave, the world's largest and fastest-growing gambling market located an hour away by ferry from Hong Kong.

Listing of MGM, whose largest shareholder is billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, follows similar moves from Wynn Macau and Sands China.

Sands China raised us$ 2.5 billion in its IPO in November, while Wynn Macau raised us$1.87 billion in October. The offerings were among two of the top 10 IPOs in Asia last year and helped Hong Kong achieve the status as the exchange that produced the world's largest IPO proceeds.