HONG KONG, Aug 25 (Reuters) – The Chinese territory of Macau elected former legislature head Ho Iat Seng as its leader on Sunday – the sole approved candidate.
Ho, who has deep ties to China, is expected to cement Beijing’s control over the special administrative region and distance it from protests in neighbouring Hong Kong.
He secured 392 votes from a 400-member pro-Beijing committee to lead the world’s largest gambling hub for at least the next five years, public broadcaster TDM reported.
The 62-year-old’s highly scripted appointment comes as the former Portuguese colony tries to position itself as a beacon of stability and model for the Chinese government’s “one country, two systems” formula through which Beijing administers Macau and Hong Kong.
Although anti-government protests have roiled the former British colony of Hong Kong for nearly three months, Macau has seen little dissent to Beijing’s rule.
Ho said local youth could resist the influence of Hong Kong’s protesters and support measures to boost patriotism in Macau.
(Reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
(Reuters)
– Wynn Resorts Ltd, the world’s No. 2 casino operator, said on Tuesday
it scrapped preliminary talks to acquire Crown Resorts Ltd for A$10
billion ($7.1 billion), after the Australian Financial Review broke news
of the negotiations.
Wynn’s
backtracking illustrates how media leaks of deal talks can test the
resolve of potential acquirers. Crown shares jumped as much as 22
percent on the news to A$14.37, close to the $A14.75 per share level
that Crown said Wynn’s latest cash-and-stock offer valued the company.
This
can make deal negotiations more difficult by emboldening acquisition
targets to drive a hard bargain, analysts said. In this case, Wynn’s
inexperience with pursuing big deals also likely played a factor, some
analysts added.
“(Wynn)
management’s experience with acquisitions is limited, so when you
target synergies it’ll be nice to have more of a track record for such a
large transaction,” said Roth Capital Partners analyst David Bain,
calling the termination of the deal talks a positive development for
Wynn.
After
the Australian Financial Review revealed Wynn’s takeover approach,
Crown not only confirmed the confidential talks on Tuesday, but also
disclosed the price that Wynn was offering. It added that Crown’s board
had not yet considered Wynn’s latest offer.
Wynn then issued two statements, first confirming the talks, and, a few hours later, stating that they had ended.
“Following
the premature disclosure of preliminary discussions, Wynn Resorts has
terminated all discussions with Crown Resorts concerning any
transaction,” the company said in a statement.
Wynn’s shares were down 3.2 percent at $140.21 in New York at mid-afternoon.
Examples
of companies confirming acquisition talks only to back out hours later
are few and far between, because they reflect a lack of conviction on
the part of the aspiring acquirers.
Last
year, drug maker Allergan Plc confirmed it was in the early stages of
making an offer for peer Shire Plc, after Reuters broke news of the
deliberations, only to issue a second statement a few hours later
stating it would not make an offer.
Insurer
Aon Plc said last month it would not pursue a merger with rival
insurance brokerage Willis Towers Watson Plc, a day after it confirmed
it was in early stages of considering an all-stock offer for the Irish
company following a Bloomberg News report revealing the deliberations.
HEDGE AGAINST MACAU
Wynn
was founded in 2002 by Steve Wynn, who started his casino business in
Las Vegas in the 1960s and created some of the city’s most iconic
landmarks – the Mirage, Bellagio and Treasure Island – before selling
them. Beset by sexual misconduct allegations, Wynn left the company and
sold his entire 11.8 percent stake in Wynn Resorts for $2.1 billion last
month.
Wynn
operates large resort-and-casino complexes in Las Vegas and Chinese
gambling hub Macau, with another under construction in Massachusetts.
The deal would have offered a hedge against Macau, where its licences
are up for renewal, by giving it two lavishly revamped Australian
casinos and a third being built on the prized Sydney harbour front.
Buying
Crown would also fit in with Wynn’s strategy to diversify
geographically to protect its growth prospects if its Macau licences are
not renewed.
The
company’s efforts so far have included ramping up promotion of a resort
in Japan, a market seen as the next potential goldmine to Macau and a
former expansion target for Crown.
“Wynn
has typically grown through building their own facilities, not through
acquisition,” said Bain, the Roth Capital Partners analyst.
For
Crown’s 47 percent owner James Packer, who re-badged his father’s media
empire as a gambling concern in 2007 only to withdraw from business
engagements last year due to mental illness, the deal would have ended
his career as a casino mogul with a A$4.7 billion payout.
He
would have ended up as Wynn’s biggest shareholder with 9.8 percent of
its shares, based on its current number of shares on issue.
“We
think Wynn’s strategy was mostly defensive, but if they have a strong
strategic rationale for wanting to acquire Crown, they would likely come
back to the table when things settle down,” said John DeCree, Union
Gaming Securities’ director of North America research.
(Reporting by Byron Kaye, Tom Westbrook and Paulina Duran in SYDNEY, Devika Syamnath and Nivedita Balu in BENGALURU, and Greg Roumeliotis in NEW YORK; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Shounak Dasgupta and Richard Chang)
HONG
KONG, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Police in the world’s biggest gambling hub of
Macau are investigating what they suspect is a rare murder in a
five-star casino resort after a Chinese man was found stabbed in his
bed, broadcaster TDM reported on Monday.
Murder
cases have been rare in the Chinese territory since Portugal ceded
control of what had been a colonial backwater on the heel of China’s
southern coast 20 years ago.
The
suspected murder took place in Sands China’s Conrad Macau hotel, TDM
reported, citing police. It comes as slower mainland growth, a weaker
yuan and a simmering trade war with the United States threaten to derail
Macau’s growth.
The
41-year-old victim, an active gambler from the mainland, had been
stabbed. The case was being investigated and no further details were
available, TDM said.
Macau
police and Sands China did not respond to requests for comment. The
company is controlled by U.S. billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas
Sands.
Macau
is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal. Casino
revenues shrank in January for the first time in more than two years.
Violent
crime in Macau has often been linked to its junket operators – the
middlemen who bring China’s wealthiest to the gambling tables. Slower
growth and tighter regulations have made it hard for many small junket
companies to stay in business.
Criminal
gangs known as triads, which are known to operate in Macau, are
typically involved in extortion, money laundering, murder and
prostitution.
(Reporting by Farah Master Editing by Robert Birsel)