Wynn Macau to Pay $193 Million Premium to Government for Resort Property

Date:2011-09-13lile  Text Size:

By Jasmine Wang and Stanley James - Sep 12, 2011 6:31 PM GMT+0800 Wynn Macau Ltd. (1128), Asia’s second- largest casino company by market value, said it has agreed to pay the Macau government 1.55 billion patacas ($193 million) as a premium for 51 acres in the Chinese city.

The land concession contract allows the construction of a resort on the 51-acre Cotai property that can include gambling and retailing, Wynn Macau said in a statement to Hong Kong’s stock exchange today. The rent was set at 6.17 million patacas a year, it said in the filing.

The contract may allow Wynn Macau to open a new casino in 2015 at the earliest, Karen Tang, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG, said in a note to clients today. Still, the company may face “downside risks” as the slowing economies in Europe and the U.S. may hurt China’s manufacturing business in southern Guangdong province from where many high-stake players come, Tang said.

Wynn Macau fell 4.1 percent to close at HK$23.70 in Hong Kong as the benchmark Hang Seng Index slid 4.2 percent. The stock earlier gained as much as 3.6 percent in morning trading before slumping as much as 10 percent in the afternoon.

Rival casino operators also plunged today. Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. declined 9.2 percent, the most since Aug. 19, to close at HK$15.82. MGM China Holdings Ltd. dropped 8 percent and SJM Holdings Ltd. (880) fell 4.3 percent.

Casino gambling revenue in the former Portuguese colony of Macau rose 47 percent to 173 billion patacas in the eight months through August

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