MGM China may delay Cotai Casino opening past first quarter

MGM China revenue dropped to HK$3.6 billion ($464 million), the company said in a statement. The pace of decline slowed from the previous quarter’s 31% year-on-year plunge.

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The world’s largest gambling hub has seen gaming revenue decline for 23 straight months, as China’s anti-corruption campaign kept the country’s high rollers away from the tables

 

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MGM said in February it would delay opening the $3 billion gambling complex to the first three months of 2017 from a target of by the end of this year.

The operator is “roughly slated” to finish construction at the end of October or early November, Chief Executive Officer Grant Bowie said on a teleconference.

“The last part of this process really resides with the relationship between signoff between ourselves and the government, which pushes into we believe end of first quarter, that may trickle over that,” Bowie said.

The world’s largest gambling hub has seen gaming revenue decline for 23 straight months, as China’s anti-corruption campaign kept the country’s high rollers away from the tables. Operators such as Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., Wynn Macau Ltd. and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. are now turning to the more profitable mass-market segment of tourists and recreational gamblers with new family-friendly resorts.

Analysts and the market have been assuming that MGM’s Cotai resort opening may slide into the second quarter, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Tim Craighead. Being among the last to get to the strip is a hurdle for the casino operator, he said. Galaxy opened two Cotai strip resorts May of last year, while Melco Crown’s Hollywood-themed Studio City opened last October.

"MGM China is facing the same challenge that their Macau-peninsula based peers are: Cotai’s new resorts," said Craighead. "Its VIP and mass businesses are both disadvantaged as Galaxy and Melco Crown ramp up. This pressure will build through the year for MGM and SJM as Wynn Macau and Sands China open their next resorts this summer."