The Macau Metro Monitor, May 16, 2013
2 SJM EXECUTIVES SELLING UP TO $56.7 MLN OF COMPANY'S SHARES WSJ
CEO Ambrose So and COO Louis Ng are selling a total of 20 million shares in a price range of HK$21.50 to HK$22.00 each (representing up to $56.7MM). The price range represents a discount of 4.4% to 2.2% to Wednesday's closing price of HK$22.50, it says. Deutsche Bank is handling the deal.
MGM CHINA SEES MACAU'S VIP GAMING BUSINESS CONTINUING TO PICK UP Bloomberg
Double-digit growth from VIP customers is “sustainable” for the industry and the casino operator’s business from high-stake gamblers is “solid,” said MGM China CEO Grant Bowie. “Everyone was speculating some negative impact, but the leadership change wasn’t an impact,” Bowie said, referring to the government transition in mainland China. “There’s also a level of resilience in terms of how China market is performing relative to the global market.”
MACAU GOVT REASSURED LAS VEGAS SANDS' BANKERS Macau Business
Secretary Tam sent a letter to one of LVS’ bankers to assure that the company could operate in Macau autonomously from its Chinese partner, Galaxy, even in the event of termination and extinction of Galaxy Casino’s concession contract. Venetian Macau is technically a sub-concessionaire of Galaxy Casino S.A. since 2002. A copy of the letter was sent to Bank of Nova Scotia – at the time a lead arranger of project debt for LVS – in 2006 and signed by Mr Tam.
According to Business Daily, that assurance was important, because some of the gaming operator’s banking partners – many of them Western companies – fretted that the company’s Macau rights, technically and officially a sub-concession, could be at risk if the supposedly senior partner Galaxy Casino S.A., a local unit of Galaxy Entertainment Group, lost its primary licence. The letter states that “Venetian Macau S.A. shall be able to exploit games of chance and other games in casino [sic] in Macau autonomously from Galaxy Casino S.A., even in the event of termination and extinction of Galaxy Casino S.A.’s concession contract…”
