A number of brokerages raised their stock-price target for global casino operator Wynn Resorts Ltd following a visit to the under-construction Wynn Al Marjan Island casino resort (pictured in a rendering) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The casino group, parent of Macau casino concessionaire Wynn Macau Ltd, held on December 4 an analyst and investor tour to the UAE, to discuss the market there, and to see the Wynn Al Marjan Island project.
The property is located on a 60-hectare (148.3-acre) plot on an artificial island in Ras Al Khaimah, part of the UAE federation. The site is 50 minutes by road from Dubai International Airport.
Wynn Resorts is a 40-percent equity investor in the project. The other partners are Marjan LLC and RAK Hospitality Holding LLC.
Wynn Resorts’ shares closed at US$127.13 in Monday’s trading on the Nasdaq. Several analyst targets for the casino firm’s stock were raised to between US$130 and US$150. They cited as reasons, the political support for the project, its luxury focus, and improved infrastructure in Ras Al Khaimah.
Target-raisers included investment banks JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, financial services firm Macquarie, and brokerage BofA Securities.
On Thursday, Wynn Resorts reaffirmed the project’s US$5.1 billion budget and the target of opening the complex for the first quarter of 2027. The company said it had spent or “fully bought out” US$3.4 billion, or 66.7 percent, of the total budget for the Wynn Al Marjan Island casino resort.
In late November, the casino group said work on the 305-metre (1,000-foot) tower at Wynn Al Marjan casino resort had “reached the 70th floor,” with construction on the roof deck “under way”.
Wynn Resorts has an exclusive, renewable 15-year casino licence for Ras Al Khaimah, and the project is forecast to generate gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the range of US$1.00 billion to US$1.66 billion annually. The company assumes a base case scenario of US$1.33 billion GGR annually.
The Ras Al Khaimah complex’s gaming space would be 225,000 square feet (20,903 sq. metres), which would be 4 percent of gross floor area. There would be only “one land-based licence” per emirate, according to Wynn Resorts.
