May

31

Macao’s king gets his throne back

Filed Under Cotai | Leave a Comment

(2 of 2 today)

Price for royalty? USD $14 million…sounds relatively cheap. 

This is a pretty meaningless piece of news, but I couldnt help but find some humor in it.  Plus I havent added any “Billionaire Competition” tags lately.  I guess Ho is preparing for his dethroning by Adelson on the Cotai Strip by buying his own throne.

May

31

Macau-Guangdong border update

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, TOURISM | Leave a Comment

Blame it on the Pols

BlogMacau.info wrote yesterday:

Measures to delay the issuance of Individual Travel Permits for mainland Chinese residents to Macau have reportedly been extended to other cities outside the province of Guangdong.

The Macao Daily News reported that the measures are now also effective in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Chongqing. The issuance time has been delayed from a week to 10 to 14 days.

A domino effect is being emerged since the measures come into effect, the paper reported.

According to the border control, the number of visitors coming to Macau has been reduced by 8% during the past few days, in comparison with the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the rate of occupancy for chartered flights has also plummeted, some of which from full occupancy to drops of 30%, although the exact cause of the fall is not yet established.

Restaurant bookings by travel groups are also reportedly dropped to almost 80%. Bookings of a restaurant dropped from 150 tables a day to 20 to 30 tables recently.

Casino operators told the newspaper that the number of visitors to casinos have been decreased in the past few days, but bets are not affected so far, possibly because of the introduction of long-distance betting by telephone.

Hotel occupancy remains the same, at 80% on weekdays and full during weekends.

Travel agencies in the mainland also told the newspaper that day trips and weekend tours, especially food tours at RMB 68 Yuan, remain popular among the residents. Coaches destined to Macau for the weekend remain full.

It is generally believed that the full effects of the new visa measures will emerge during the summer or after summer holidays, since a significant number of visitors are still using permits before the new measures came into effect.

Some 80% of the total Individual Travel Permits issued by the authorities in mainland China comes from Guangdong.

May

26

China slowing Macau tourism

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Wall Street, OTHER, TOURISM | Leave a Comment

Too much of a good thing.

Late last week, reports started flowing in that China’s Guangdong province has started to tighten control of the Macau border. Since there really has not been any official statement by the government, it is to be seen whether or not the tightening policy is temoporary or permanent. Here’s a quick look at some of the new restrictions:

1-There will be a restriction on the number of times that visitors are allowed to visit Macau.
2-The application period is now 10 days instead of 6 the days previously.
3-Permit for Business travel have been suspended indefinitely.
4-Urgent applications have been canceled with immediate effect.
5-Guangdong Residents are now only allowed to visit Macau on a single entry permit instead the previous double entry permit.
6-There will be breaks inserted in between the visits of two months.
7-They may restrict permits altogether. (*more below*)

With the Cotai Strip®’s Venetian Macao opening this summer, these measures could be quite troubling for the casino’s initial opening, and could just compound the ongoing problems of the Crown Macau. The Macau centric stocks reacted negatively to the initial reports late last week, so we’ll just have to wait and see if the additional news trickling in this weekend has a spillover on Tuesday.

May

25

Venetian Macao ferry update

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Venetian Macao, OTHER | Leave a Comment

Only the best will do on the Cotai Strip

Here is a press release by none other than Rolls Royce saying their waterjets will power ten new high speed ferries ordered by Venetian Macao to take between Macau and Hong Kong.

Text below:

Rolls-Royce waterjets will propel a series of ten catamaran ferries for a Hong Kong - Macau link.

Venetian Marketing Services Ltd (VMSL) has ordered ten fast catamarans to provide a luxury ferry service between Hong Kong locations and the new Pac On terminal being built by the Macau government to serve the Cotai Strip® in Macau. The ferries are designed by Austal and will be built at their yard in Western Australia, with a very tight delivery schedule in 2007 and 2008. They will be called The Cotai Strip Waterjet fleet.

Each of the ferries will carry up to 411 passengers. Accommodation will be on two decks, with overhead lockers for hand baggage and storage for heavier luggage. There will be on-board hotel check-in to make life easier for visitors to the Cotai Strip® and the new hotel that Venetian is to open this year. (*more below*)
To provide these 47.5m catamarans with their 42 knot service speed, each vessel is to have four main engines rated at 2,320kW, coupled through gearboxes to four Rolls-Royce Kamewa 63 SII waterjets.

These waters are home to some of the world’s most intensive fast ferry routes and Austal has already contributed 36 fast catamarans to the region, all propelled by Rolls-Royce waterjets.

In addition to the ten vessels for Venetian, even more are to follow. Austal has won a contract to build two 47.5m catamarans for New World First Ferry Services (Macau) to operate between Macau and Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong. When they go into service in 2008 they will each provide comfortable transport for 418 passengers at more than 42 knots. They follow five earlier Austal catamarans for the same owner, and they are to be built at a shipyard in Tasmania that was recently acquired by Austal. Four Kamewa 63 SII waterjets will be fitted per vessel, each driven by its own diesel engine for a total installed power of 9,280kW.

May

24

Crown Macau grand opening details

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Melco PBL, Crown Macau | Leave a Comment

(Posting 3 of 3 today)

Melco PBL learns about Murphy’s Law>

According to Destination-Macau, the opening of Taipa Island’s Crown Macau was a sheer disaster. Poorly planned and poorly executed, but probably not unpredicted given the way that the Crown Macau construction timeline and budget has gone so far. (*more below*)

You have to hope that the Macau slot parlor operator and Australian giant have learned something from this debacle and will be ready for the really important grand opening of their Cotai hotel casino, City of Dreams, when it opens in a few years.

Here is a pretty neat Dragone video from the grand opening

May

24

Macau Studio City investor to build residences in Macau

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, OTHER | Leave a Comment

(2 of 3 postings today)

Building boom continues

Oaktree Capital, one of the Cotai Macau Studio City investors, will be team up with a Hong Kong developer to build two apartement towers near Van Nam Lake on the Macau Peninsula to be finished by 2009, according to Bloomberg.

From the article:

“The city has developed from a derivative of Hong Kong into a truly international city in a very short time”

“Real estate in Macau last year sold at an average 1,519 patacas per square foot, more than doubling from 2002″

“Macau has all the right conditions to become a base for businesses aiming to develop in Southern China”

May

24

Venetian Macao adds tennis to arsenal

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Venetian Macao, OTHER, COTAI CASINOS, ENTERTAINMENT, Sports | Leave a Comment

(Posting 1 of 3 today)

Cotai Strip’s clash of the titans

From Las Vegas Sands press release:

The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, a Las Vegas Sands Corp. property, today announced it will play host to a historic match between two of the greatest tennis players of all time. Current World No. 1 Roger Federer will take on former No.1 Pete Sampras, in what is set to be one of the most anticipated events in world tennis, at The Venetian Macao Tennis Showdown, to be played on Saturday November 24, at The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel’s stunning new event center in the People’s Republic of China Special Administrative Region of Macao. (*more below*)

LVS’s William Weidner:

“With our Manchester United fixture in July, our NBA China Games 2007 games featuring the Orlando Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers in October and now the Sampras v Federer Showdown, we are truly living up to our promise to make The Venetian Macao the pre-eminent destination for sports and entertainment events, to compliment our incredible combination of shopping, dining, leisure and recreation.”

May

22

MGM in play

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Wall Street, MGM & Pansy Ho, MGM Cotai | Leave a Comment

What about Macau and Cotai?

Kirk Kerkorian’ Tracinda announed its intention to buy MGM’s Bellagio and City Center and also seek strategic alternatives for some or all of its MGM stock (he is the majority shareholder with approximately 55% ownership). So it would seem like MGM Mirage now appears to be in play.

MGM is Pansy Ho’s joint venture partner in Macau, with one hotel casino opening soon on the Macau Peninsula and plans to open a second hotel casino on their Cotai land sometime in the future.

Its too early to tell, but based on Tracinda’s announcement, it looks like one real outcome is that MGM Mirage goes through a leveraged buy-out (LBO), with either Tracinda or Kerkorian taking the company private or with a group of private equity firms taking the company private (with or without Bellagio and City Center) in a similar fashion to Harrah’s LBO.

For those not familiar with LBO’s, the acquisition is paid for by raising alot of debt on the target company’s balance sheet to pay for the acquisition. The new owners are usually interested in stable cash flows, and in many cases the new company is so burdened with paying interest that not alot of flexibility is left to reinvest in the company. So the newly LBO’s company could sell off higher risk, capital intensive projects that could garner a very high price and use the proceeds to repay some of the LBO debt. (*more below*)

MGM’s Macau and Cotai joint venture interest fits this high risk, capital intensive profile, so the question of whether or not MGM eventually sells its interest in Macau should be asked.

Who could be the buyer if MGM Macau is up for sale? Remember Richard Branson showed a real interest in Macau. Would the Donald want to be in Macau despite his twice bankrupt casino company’s history. Or could it be one of the newly minted billionaires emerging from China.

Another interesting question is whether or not one of the other Macau companyies, such as PBL, makes a run at trying to buy MGM Mirage since PBL has shown interest in being in Las Vegas. Also ask yourself why in the world is Las Vegas Sands public? Adelson own the vast majority of the stock and with the big casinos like Harrah’s, Station, and now maybe MGM, it is becoming clear you no longer need to be a public company in the gaming industry.

Leave your thoughts below.

May

19

Cotai Mega Residence

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Taipa, OTHER | 3 Comments

Seems like everything is Super-sized in Cotai

This one is a few months old, but I really haven’t seen it written about it so I thought I’d throw it out there. Plus, everyone would probably prefer to read something other than how bad Melco PBL is screwing up. (*more below*)

“is building 3,500 residential units near (Las Vegas Sands’) Cotai Strip®. This mega project comprises 24 residential blocks and one block of serviced apartments to be developed in four phases by 2013…Aiming to create a self-sustained urban centre, the project is also going to offer around 100,000 square feet of clubhouse facilities and over 700,000 square feet of landscaped garden as well as other amenities. The new project sits on a site which consists of five parcels of land adjacent to one and other, next to the Macau International Airport. The aggregate area of the site is around 78,700 square metres, with a total gross floor area of about 392,505 square metres.”

May

18

Crown Macau off to poor start

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Melco PBL, Taipa, Crown Macau | 1 Comment

Uh-oh!

Only open a week and already deserted?

“Our latest visit was shortly before noon today, when we walked into the newest casino, on Taipa Island, and found staff to be far outnumbering visitors. On the fifth floor, where the high minimum-bet tables are located, we found not a single customer.” (*more below*)

Read more of the spot-check.

May

16

Cotai Strip® panoramic views

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai | Leave a Comment

Here is a pretty cool blog entry with a panoramic view of the LVS’ Cotai Strip® two years ago and today. Hope this guy really does keep updating the shots every year. We’ll be watching.

May

13

Crown Macau opens

Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Melco PBL, Taipa, Crown Macau, COTAI CASINOS, COMPANIES, Wynn Macau, MACAU PENINSULA CASINOS | Leave a Comment

Look out Wynn?

Melco-PBL’s Crown Macau finally opened yesterday, giving the company an early advantage over the Cotai casinos and hotels that will be opening over the next several years.

Some speculate that Crown Macau will also go after the Macau Peninsula’s very high-end customers and will directly take on Wynn Macau. Based on these quotes I’d bet they’ve got their sights aimed directly at Wynn. (*more below*)

“What we want to bring to Macau is the six-star experience.”

“We’re aspiring to the premium individual players around the world who’ll fly in on our own aircraft.”

“What we’re building is a property that’s not the biggest, but we think that quality is more important than quantity.” — this actually sounds like something Wynn would say, doesnt it?

Dont forget to watch the Crown Macau video.

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