Supplier News
China – MGM delays Cotai opening by three months
By Phil - 8 August 2016
MGM China is delaying the debut of its new MGM Cotai Casino Resort by three months to mid 2017.
MGM added that the investment would also be slightly more than expected.
Jim Murren, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: “We have decided to push out the opening date a bit for the MGM Cotai Casino Resort into the second quarter of next year. Recall that we’ve said, we [were] looking for March. This will give us just a little bit more time. It does increase the budget slightly by one per cent to $3.1bn but we think the time is worth it.”
MGM China reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization for the three-month period of nearly $119m, down ten per cent whilst operating income dropped by 11 per cent to $51m.
It blamed smoking restrictions and ‘certain political initiatives’ for the decline.
“This particularly affected the numbers of high-end or premium players visiting the group’s VIP, main floor and slot machine gaming operations,” it stated. “In response to the volume decrease since 2015, we worked with our gaming promoters to optimise casino space and enhance table yield. All components of gaming revenues in the Macau market were adversely impacted by these changed circumstances as well as the slower economic growth in China.”
Revenue from VIP table games fell by 31.1 per cent to $17.7bn whilst VIP gross table games win dropped by 35.5 per cent to $545.4m. Mass gaming table games win for the first half of 2016 dropped by 5.4 per cent year-on-year to just under $478.3m.
