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)
One of the trends sweeping through the gaming industry over the past decade is selling real estate to real estate investment trusts (REITs). Sometimes companies control their REITs, like MGMResorts (NYSE: MGM) does with MGM Growth Properties (NYSE: MGP) and CaesarsEntertainment (NASDAQ: CZR) does with VIVI Properties(NYSE: VICI), and sometimes real estate is sold to third-party companies.
REITs free up cash for casino companies, often to the tune of billions of dollars. That money can help reduce debt or fund growth projects, which is attractive because it doesn’t fundamentally change a resort’s operations. But Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN) has avoided the temptation to sell most of its real estate over the years. If it did, however, the company could free up billions of dollars in cash.
Image source: Wynn Resorts.
Click the link below for the full story from “The Motley Fool”…
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)
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Resorts World Las Vegas (RWLV) and Wynn Resorts today jointly announced that the companies have reached a settlement agreement on a dispute involving trade dress and copyright infringement claims surrounding the design of the $4 billion RWLV project.
“Genting’s Resorts World Las Vegas project will be the launching point for the next generation of integrated resorts, and the aesthetics of the project will play an important role in its future success. While the company believes the design to have had differences with Wynn and Encore’s once fully realized, after further consideration and conversations with the Wynn team, we have directed our design team to make several changes that will clearly differentiate the two properties,” said Michael Levoff, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs & Development, Genting. “This mutually beneficial settlement will allow Genting to continue to develop Resorts World Las Vegas with minimal impact to cost and the overall project timeline.”
“Wynn Resorts’ world-renowned signature architecture and design are among the elements that have built our brand’s reputation for excellence. Resorts World Las Vegas’ initial design had elements which had similarity to our resorts in Las Vegas, Macau and Boston. The new design changes offered by Genting will resolve the concerns we expressed about the similarity of the design,” said Michael Weaver, Chief Communications Officer, Wynn Resorts. “We welcome and look forward to Resorts World Las Vegas’ opening. Their future success will benefit all of Las Vegas.”
About Resorts World Las Vegas Resorts World Las Vegas (www.rwlasvegas.com) is a US $4 billion, Las Vegas Strip, integrated resort currently under construction and being developed by the world-renowned Genting Group. RWLV will include over 3,400 rooms in multiple hotels; a variety of restaurants; an innovative, next generation gaming space; numerous retail offerings; and a top-tier nightlife venue. The first ground-up resort on the Las Vegas in over a decade once opened, RWLV is being designed to appeal to both gaming and non-gaming patrons with a special emphasis on technology and first-to-market product offerings. RWLV is slated to initially open at the end of 2020. The Genting Group (www.genting.com) comprises the holding company Genting Berhad (Bursa Malaysia: KLSE 3182) and its listed subsidiaries: Genting Malaysia Berhad, Genting Plantations Berhad and Genting Singapore PLC. The Group is involved in leisure and hospitality, oil palm plantations, power generation, oil and gas, property development, life sciences and biotechnology activities, with operations spanning across the globe, including in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, China, the United States of America, Bahamas and the United Kingdom.
About Wynn Resorts Wynn Resorts, Limited (WYNN) is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol WYNN and is part of the S&P 500 Index. Wynn Resorts owns and operates Wynn and Encore Las Vegas (wynnlasvegas.com), Wynn Macau (wynnmacau.com), Wynn Palace, Cotai (wynnpalace.com), and is currently constructing Encore Boston Harbor in Everett, Massachusetts (encorebostonharbor.com), scheduled to open summer 2019. With a collective 16 Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Awards, Wynn Resorts is the highest rated independent hotel company in the world.
Shares of Wynn resorts (WYNN) dove more than 15 percent Thursday after the casino operator’s chief executive said the company is seeing a “slowdown” at its Macau location.
Though CEO Matthew Maddox said results were strong during China’s seven-day Golden Week holiday, attendance since then has been “choppy” during the week and “sporadic” on the weekends.