The prefectural and city authorities for Japan’s Osaka (pictured) said on Friday they had extended the deadline under which they and their private-sector partners led by MGM Resorts Japan LLC and Orix Corp, would be able to terminate the basic agreement signed in February last year for an integrated resort (IR) with casino. The venture has been described as a US$10-billion scheme.
According to GGRAsia’s Japan correspondent, the change is likely to be procedural due to the extra time needed to finalise an implementation agreement between the two sides.
Osaka’s IR District Development Plan was approved in principle in April by the national authorities. Further agreements between the consortium and Osaka on the construction of the planned IR were “required to be finalised within 90 days” of the approval by the central government, i.e., April 14.
The two sides are still to announce the implementation agreement for the project. The latter will define in detail the respective rights and responsibilities of the Osaka governments and their private-sector partners.
Previously, the basic agreement said that the deadline to terminate the basic agreement – should either side wish it – would be 90 days from the date the national government had approved in principle Osaka’s tilt at having a casino resort.
As that 90-day period has already been exceeded without the implementation agreement being announced, the basic agreement – and the new termination deadline – is now at the end of September.
The Osaka governments have said they expect a draft of the implementation agreement to be ready in September.
Last week at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia conference in Macau, Ed Bowers, president and chief executive of MGM Resorts Japan, said Japan was a “sufficiently large” market “to provide a reasonable return to what is now a very high investment”.
