GGRAsia – Genting’s Las Vegas arm borrows US$1 bln to finish resort

Genting’s Las Vegas arm borrows US$1 bln to finish resort

Apr 04, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Malaysian operator of casinos Genting Bhd says its venture in Las Vegas will use the proceeds of an offering of US$1-billion worth of debt to finish and open the casino resort it is currently building there.

The company issued a press release on Wednesday saying that wholly-owned subsidiaries Resorts World Las Vegas LLC (RWLV) and RWLV Capital Inc had priced on Tuesday the US$1-billion worth of 4.625-percent senior notes due 2029. The statement failed to give the price set.

The Genting statement said the issuers will use the net proceeds to cover the remaining costs of designing, developing, building, equipping, financing and opening the Resorts World Las Vegas casino resort (pictured in a rendering), which is now under construction; to cover borrowing costs; for working capital and for other general corporate purposes.

Fitch Ratings Inc said last month it had given RWLV a long-term issuer default rating and senior unsecured rating of A-, with a stable outlook, and given its proposed senior secured revolver and term-loan facilities an A-(EXP) expected rating.

In January, the Genting group and U.S.-based casino operator Wynn Resorts Ltd – which owns Macau casino operator Wynn Macau Ltd – announced that they had settled a dispute about the appearance of the Resorts World Las Vegas casino resort, which had threatened to bring work on the project to a halt.

In an announcement last October, Genting Malaysia Bhd subsidiary Genting Americas Inc said it would open the Las Vegas casino resort in 2020.

Resorts World Las Vegas has been described as a “multibillion-dollar integrated resort” but a budget has not been disclosed. Investment analysts have previously mentioned a US$4-billion price tag.