Investment analysts are reporting that the first phase of MGM Kotai could open in “mid-to-late 2016” rather than “early 2016” as Macau casino operator MGM China Holdings Ltd said ahead of Tuesday’s first-half earnings release.
On that day, Jim Muren, chairman and chief executive of MGM Resorts International, MGM China’s parent company, said the companies had “extended” their language on MGM Cotai’s opening date, a fact that referred only to the “2016 opening” identified in a document filed with MGM China in Hong Kong.
Mr. Murren mentioned “uncertainty” in the project’s future licensing process during a second-quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, MGM China CEO Grant Bowie, pictured, refused to confirm with the GGRA about the timing of the opening of the $2.9 billion resort, which analysts have noted. But he has been clear about the government’s licensing issues.
“We have all the necessary permits to continue the construction process, but generally to observe, the ongoing process to obtain all subsequent approvals is still something that needs to be addressed,” he told us.
“For example, like any construction project, there is a series of ongoing approval processes. For example, first you have to publish the land in the official gazette, then you have to get a foundation permit, then you have to get a superstructure approval, and when you get to the end, you obviously have to get an operational permit,” Mr Bowie added.
Sands China Ltd, one of MGM China’s Macau market rivals, said on a second-quarter earnings conference call that construction of the $2.7 billion Paris Macau project in Kotai had been suspended pending “specific approval from the Macau government.”
MGM China’s Mr Bowie told GGRAsia, referring to the Bureau of Land, Public Works and Transport (also known as DSSOPT), a supervisory government department for such projects. “Given the workload in the marketplace, DSSOPT is reviewing everyone’s documents to make sure they are in line with the process. We understand what the process is, we will follow that process, and we will have all our permission.”
Mr Bowie added: “It takes time to get those processes right.”
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