Mar
1
Crown Macau on a roll
Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Melco PBL, Crown Macau | Leave a Comment
Lord knows MPEL’s Crown Macau had its troubles last year, so I wanted to make sure everyone saw how successful its revamped VIP strategy has been. This news is a few weeks old, but like I said, they deserve their time in the spotlight
From Macau Daily Times:
Crown Macau’s VIP share of the gaming market has soared to 18 percent this month thanks largely to a new junket deal introduced last December, developer Melco PBL Entertainment (MPEL) reported yesterday. Read more
Nov
10
City of Dreams construction update
Filed Under Macau, Cotai, Melco PBL, City of Dreams | Leave a Comment
Looks like everything is on track. From a Melco PBL press release:
Construction of City of Dreams on Cotai remains on time and on budget. The development budget remains in-line with our June 15, 2007 announcement that provided an update on the timing and scope of the project. At that time, MPEL indicated that the direct cost of the construction of City of Dreams, excluding the co-located apartment hotel tower, would be US$1.85 billion and that the cost of the land would be US$279 million – these costs remain unchanged.
Our US$1.75 billion bank facility, when fully drawn, is intended to fully fund the budgeted construction costs of City of Dreams resort and casino. Read more
Nov
10
Problems with Cotai’s City of Dreams?
Filed Under Macau, Cotai, Melco PBL, City of Dreams | Leave a Comment
It looks like Ao Man Long’s corruption problems is having an impact on the construction of the City of Dreams. In a recent SEC filing, Melco PBL mentioned the following:
“The Macau Government has granted us a lease for a plot of land for Crown Macau and has offered to grant us a lease for the development rights for two adjacent land parcels in Cotai for the City of Dreams site…However, we have yet to receive either a formal grant of a land concession or an occupancy permit for the City of Dreams site…We cannot predict whether Mr Ao’s removal and prosecution and any further Read more
Nov
3
City of Dreams price tag keeps getting bigger
Filed Under Macao, Cotai, Melco PBL, Wall Street, City of Dreams | Leave a Comment
Melco PBL filed an SEC document as part of its filing to issue more public equity shares. The Australian did a nice job picking up some of the City of Dreams changes.
“Costs on James Packer’s City of Dreams casino project continue to rise, with the estimate outlay now at $US2.1 billion ($2.26 billion) compared with $US1.85 billion in June and $US1.5 billion last December.
In June, Melco PBL announced a City of Dreams “project review” which put the cost at $US1.85 billion — 23 per cent higher than the estimated $US1.5 billion in the prospectus issued late last year when the company listed on the US market.
The cost of the project, on Macao’s Cotai area, has been hit by a Read more
Oct
3
Cotai Strip disappoints
Filed Under Macao, Cotai, Las Vegas Sands, Venetian Macao, Melco PBL, Wall Street, Wynn | Leave a Comment
Who ever thought 50% revenue growth would be disappointing!
The AP writes:
“Analyst Celeste Mellet Brown said early figures showed September gambling revenue grew 55 percent from Read more
Oct
1
Trinity Hotel to be PBL’s Newest casino in Macao
Filed Under Macao, Melco PBL, Trinity Macao | 1 Comment
During an investor presentation, Melco-PBL finally gave details for their Macao Peninsula site that they have mentioned in the past. The Trinity Hotel Casino will cost US$675 and consist of two hotel towers. One will be a serviced hotel and the other will have a casino with 215 tables and 500 slot machines. The Trinity Hotel Casino will target day-trippers coming into Macao from Read more
Aug
20
City of Dream’s Cotai Crisis?
Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Melco PBL, Wall Street, City of Dreams | Leave a Comment
You think you had a rough week
It was a tough week Melco PBL. Reuter’s ran a story saying that the company could have trouble obtaining the needed financing to finish its Cotai City of Dream’s hotel and casino project. Shares plunged to an all time low as a result.
Reuters said:
“Global credit turmoil is starting to squeeze financing deals in Asia, with bankers saying that Nasdaq-listed Melco PBL Entertainment is struggling to find lenders for its Macau casino projects”
The concern arises from the current paralysis in the US credit markets, where no-one could get a financing package done in today’s environment. The Asian market seems to be in better shape though, and MPEL’s CFO came to the rescue on a Friday conference call with investors:
“The Asian bank loan market is quite separate from the US debt market and it is currently open for business. We are confident that this Asian tranche will be completed in the next two weeks.”
The company’s reassuring remarks, along with the rallying US stock market on Friday, helped MPLE recover most of its losses.
Aug
16
Crown Macao struggles
Filed Under Macau, Macao, Cotai, Melco PBL, Crown Macau | Leave a Comment
“A six-star hotel in a three-star location”
This story paints a pretty bleak picture of the Crown Macao. It’s worth pointing out that that the writer’s casino review is from June, but from the tone of the story, it doesnt sound like much will change in about a month and half.
“The world’s biggest casino, the Sands Macau, was chock-a-block, with some 2000 people spread across four floors.
Ten minutes away on Taipa Island at Packer’s Crown Macau, it’s a very different story. There is hardly anyone playing. There are roughly 140 tables spread over five floors in the non-VIP area and maybe 150 customers all up.
The punters are easily outnumbered by dealers, waiters and other staff. The top floor is almost deserted.
The entire room has only one of its 30 tables in operation, with five people gathered around. Another roped-off section has, perhaps, a further dozen tables of which just two or three are in play. It’s always like this, the barman tells me.
The poker machines are no busier. There are supposed to be 479 in Crown Macau - I don’t bother to count them - but, that afternoon, at least 90 per cent appear to be idle.”
Comparing this to the Cotai Strip®’s Venetian Macao and other Cotai Strip® hotel casinos is like comparing apples to oranges, so I wouldnt be overly concerned.
Jul
19
Crown Macau fully opens
Filed Under Cotai, Melco PBL, Crown Macau | Leave a Comment
Hallelujah!
Melco PBL announced that its Crown Macau hotel and casino on Taipa Island is now completely open. This has been a long time in the making, and am glad they were able to pull it in July.
Next big announcement will be the Venetian Macao on the Cotai Strip® in late August. Let’s hope they have a better opening than the Crown did.
Jul
8
Trump Cotai?
Filed Under Cotai, Melco PBL, City of Dreams | Leave a Comment
I thought NYC was the Donald’s City of Dreams
I knew The Donald couldn’t stay away from Cotai. With all the hotels and casinos being built in Cotai, how could the self-proclaimed world’s greatest real estate mogul not throw his hat into the ring?
It looks like Trump could partner with Melco-PBL to brand the City of Dreams’ condos on the Cotai district. This would obviously help the Donald as he continues his quest for world domination, and could help City of Dreams as it brings in a well-known brand that could help sell the units for a premium.
According to TheStreet.com:
Sources familiar with the Macau market say that Trump International has been looking to team up with Melco for a development in the region. The possible partnership appeared to get more credence on Tuesday, when a sales call between Hong Kong office and institutional investors mentioned the likelihood of a deal between the two parties, according a buy-side source on the call.
The 650 City of Dreams condo hotel units are planned for a total of 1.3 million square feet on Cotai with a completion date of year-end 2009.
Jun
21
City of Dreams’ “inferior” Cotai condos
Filed Under Cotai, Melco PBL, City of Dreams | Leave a Comment
SMH did a small piece on City of Dreams’ plans for two block of residential units on Cotai. Here is the meat of it:
The apartments on the City of Dreams site are expected to be sold in 2010.
They are clearly inferior to apartments selling at rival casino the Venetian, because Melco PBL is selling for $US850 ($1000) per square foot, versus $US1350 at the Venetian.
If you want to compare these prices to the Las Vegas Strip, take a look below:
Vdara will be the only condo hotel at (MGM’s) CityCenter (on the LV Strip). Vdara will have 1,543 residential units ranging from 500 square feet to 1,850 square feet. Unit pricing starts at around $500,000, or about $1,000 per square foot for the smallest units on the lowest floors.
Jun
17
Melco PBL updates Cotai City of Dreams
Filed Under Macao, Cotai, Melco PBL, Wall Street, Hard Rock Macau, City of Dreams, Grand Hyatt Macau, Crown Towers Hotel | Leave a Comment
(3 of 3 Melco PBL postings today)
Up, up and away!
Melco PBL issued a press release that it has secured a US $2.75 billion loan that includes two sub-headings about its Cotai City of Dreams that i’ll talk about. Take a look back at my posting from March after Melco PBL raised its budget for Crown Macau. At the time, I couldnt help but wonder how much City of Dreams was going to end up costing. I’m guessing there’s more increases to come.
1) Announces Substantial investment in Cotai Serviced Apt Hotel Units
The budget was raised from US$96 to $US353 due to a significant change in scope. The company does believe however that the proceeds from the sales of these apartment hotel units will end up reducing the net capital investment of the Cotai City of Dreams.
2) Completes Cotai’s City of Dreams Project and Program Review
Budget raised 23%, from US$1.5 billion to US$1.849 billion due to an increase in scope. The thing with the “increased scope” excuse is that its always tough to determine how much is really “increased scope” and how much is poor planning and rising construction costs. To the company’s credit, the do say that the rise in costs is almost proportional to the increase in gross square feet (3.6 million to 4.2 million), with only 6% of the increase is from inflation.
The company also gives an opening date of March 2009 for its Phase I City of Dreams with the following description:
…consists of substantially all of the 420,000 square foot casino and approximately 85,000 square feet of retail space, as well as the 366-room Hard Rock Hotel and the 295-all-suite Crown Towers Hotel, Cotai. The 1,005-room Grand Hyatt Macau twin-tower hotel is scheduled to open in September 2009.
The entire press release can be found here