SJM IPO

A $1 billion IPO planned by tycoon Stanley Ho’s Macau flagship gives investors a rare chance to bet on a casino boom that has been funded mostly by loans, and more public markets capital-raising is on the cards.

Given the billions required to finance a planned construction spree and the change in funding needs as a gaming sector that has surpassed the Las Vegas Strip matures, operators are expected to step up the issuance of debt and equity, bankers said.

“There’s still probably a handful of $2 billion or so projects coming, if not more, and that can’t all be digested in the loan market,” said Chris Gammons, managing director in Citigroup’s financial entrepreneurs group.

“I expect to see some of these financings to also come via the debt and equity markets,” he said.

Source: Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersComService4/idUSHKG21415020080110

Macau tourism booming

The number of visitors to the tiny island of Macau rose by an impressive 23 per cent last year, putting the number at 27 million arrivals and the casino capital of the Far East on track to surpass Hong Kong this year.

Hong Kong received 28 million visits last year, a jump of 10 per cent.

Macau is becoming increasingly popular with tourists – it is only a one hour ferry trip from Hong Kong and new casinos are continuously being built. The former Portuguese colony is also developing into an all-round entertainment location to widen its appeal.

–Happy New Year’s–

Macau celebrated the coming of the new year all throughout the city, with performances and shows and the appearance of local celebrities at the Macau Fisherman’s Wharf and the Sai Vai Lakes. Amongst the new year’s activities, the Grand Lisboa started its celebrations at 11pm and at midnight had its first countdown into the new year, with its grand ball, the “starphere” displaying the countdown seconds to 2008. According to a statement released by the company, during the event, “a countdown animation with animated fireworks was tailor-made to be shown on the ‘Starshphere’.”Thousands of people gathered at the Grand Lisboa Piazza to join the party and watch local celebrities  Raymond Lam, Jade Kwan, Johnson Lee and Selena Li perform several songs. The outdoor celebration was also broadcast live inside Grand Lisboa casino where players also got the chance to watch SJM manager and CEO, Stanley Ho, toast the coming of a new year.

Source:  MacauDailyTimesNews.com

http://www.macaudailytimesnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4828&Itemid=28

Macau unemployment under 3%

–Thank you casinos–

Macao saw its unemployment rate for the first 11 months of 2007 stand at 2.9 percent, 0.7 percentage point lower than the same period of 2006, according to the Employment Survey released on Friday by the Statistics and Census Service.

The survey showed that Macao’s total labor force was estimated at 320,000, while the unemployed population in the first 11 months of 2007 was estimated at 9,300, dropping 300 compared with the previous period. It also said that about 1,500 were searching for their first job among the unemployed.

By industry, the number of the employed in construction, gaming, hotel and restaurant sectors saw considerable growth, while that in the transport, storage and communication sectors decreased, according to the survey.

The Macao Special Administrative Region has a population of 528,000.

Source: People’s Daily

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/6329516.html

Gambling mom leaves kids at home

A single mother left her two young daughters home alone while she indulged in a week-long gambling spree, a Hong Kong court report said Saturday. The mother left the girls aged eight and nine with just 160 Hong Kong dollars (20 US dollars) on a Friday night in October and left for Macau, a gambling hotspot just a one-hour boat ride from Hong Kong. The 41-year-old mother claimed she was only going for a few hours but when she failed to return the children looked after themselves over the weekend and on Monday went to school as normal. Her absence was discovered when a teacher found a test completed by one of the girls had not been signed by a parent and informed a school social worker. The report in the South China Morning Post said the girls were taken into care and the mother contacted in Macau. However, she carried on gambling and only returned three days later claiming she had “lost her mind in gambling.”The jobless mother appeared in magistrates court Friday, pleading guilty to two charges of child abuse. The case was adjourned for sentencing until January 11 to allow for the preparation of social welfare for the family.

Source: Taipei Times

NJ’s MGM probe continues

The efforts by MGM Mirage to open a casino halfway around the world have led to a review of whether there’s a conflict of interest within the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. For nearly three years, the division has been conducting an investigation into MGM’s partner in the Chinese enclave of Macau. The partner, Pansy Ho, is the daughter of gambling magnate Stanley Ho, who for decades has been suspected of having connections to the Chinese mob.

Now, the division has come under scrutiny because four of its investigators have been freelancing for a South Jersey casino consulting firm, Spectrum Gaming, which conducted its own investigation of the Hos and wrote a report detailing allegations of links between Stanley Ho and Chinese “triads” and raising questions about Pansy Ho’s independence from her father.

Source: NJ.com

Review of the Cotai Strip’s Venetian Macao

The Venetian Macao on Macau’s Cotai Strip outshines any competition in its trailblazing pace…as the largest most spectacular Integrated Resort in the world. My Turbojet dash across the South China Sea brought along exciting Chinese chatter and fervent debate on what’s really happening on the other side of the Pearl River delta. While I tried to snooze off a wee hundred winks, I was woken up by the distant dazzle of Macau’s brilliant architecture, opening its steel, chrome and glass arms to welcome my keen critique of its irresistible allure.

Macau shares geographic proximity with its envious counterpart Hong Kong across, and is home to some of the most compelling gaming destinations this side of Vegas. It’s Portuguese and Chinese legacy tinges its pace with impatient opprobrium, defying its earlier historic chuckle as a sleepy, non-descript Portuguese trading outpost.

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New casinos add to booming gaming revenue

Macao’s casino industry will likely see record gross revenues of 83 billion patacas (10 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007, an increase of 46.5 percent over last year, The Macao Post Daily reported on Wednesday.

The casinos’ gross receipts were expected to reach 8.1 billion patacas (1.03 billion U.S. dollars) in December, the daily quoted a senior official of Macao’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau as saying.

He added that the Las-Vegas-style casino resort MGM Grand Macao, opened on Dec. 18, recorded gross receipts of 51.5 million patacas (6.6 million U.S. dollars) in its first two days of operations.

The opening of MGM Grand has added to the number of casinos in Macao to 28, including the Macao Palace floating casino that is currently closed for renovation works.

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Macau ferry services inadequate

Ticket touts are increasingly working the ferry terminals between Hong Kong and Macau, cashing in on the tourism boom in the territory that has revealed the inadequacy of ferry services, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported yesterday.

The public recently complaint about both the lack of ferries and associated ticket scalpers, when Venetian Macao held the exhibition matches between tennis stars Pete Sampras and Roger Federer as well as the basketball games involving Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and Team China All-Stars.

Shun Tak-China Travel Ship Management, whose TurboJet fleet operates most of the Hong Kong-Macau sailings, was cited by the newspaper as saying it was worried about scalping and vowed to protect passengers from rip-offs.

A handful of scalpers can often be seen hanging about near ticket windows at the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal in Macau and the Shun Tak Centre in Hong Kong, especially on weekends and holidays.

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Macau visitor volume keeps rising

Macau continues to receive record numbers of visitors, as the number of visitor arrivals reached 2,458,120 in November 2007, representing a year-on-year increase of 26.1%. Visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong rose by 31.2% and 10.3% respectively, with those from Southeast Asia soared by 85.4%. Meanwhile, same-day visitors accounted for 52.1% of the total arrivals, at 1,280,484.

The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China (57.1% of the total), Hong Kong (26.7%) and Southeast Asia (5.3%). Among the Mainland visitors, 45.6% travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme, at 640,143.

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