Jun 19, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  
Macau casino operator MGM China Holdings Ltd has already engaged consultants and designers regarding its plan to add hotel rooms and “wellness” services to its MGM Cotai casino resort (pictured), reported on Wednesday business news service Bloomberg.
The media outlet cited people familiar with the matter, that were not able to speak on the record.
In December 2022, soon after MGM China got confirmation of a new 10-year Macau gaming concession, the company’s chairperson Pansy Ho Chiu King, fronted a press briefing that mentioned a raft of concession-related non-gaming investment commitments, many of them for MGM Cotai.
The latter has a bigger footprint than its older sister property, the 600-room MGM Macau on the city’s peninsula.
Among the pledges was an “Urban Oasis”, described as a “all-new landmark of health and wellness tourism”.
At the time, the firm said it would offer “a one-stop services combining wellness and medical offerings including medical hydrotherapy, diet therapy, leisure and health management, medical tourism, and health assessment.”
The casino firm had also confirmed plans to add an extra hotel tower to its 1,390-room MGM Cotai, which launched in February 2018.
The Macau government has asked under the terms of the new concessions that began in January 2023, that its six casino concessionaires up the amount of non-gaming amenities they offer. The city is seeking to pivot away from a dependence on high-stakes casino gambling as part of the Macau government’s economic diversification plan.
The casino market share of MGM China has been improving even as the local government’s policy focus shifts to non-gaming tourism.
On May 2, at the time of its first-quarter results, the casino operator said its market share in terms of Macau gross gaming revenue “further climbed” to 17 percent in the three months to March 31, compared to 15.2 percent a year earlier, and 9.5 percent in 2019.
Some of that growth in market share had been attributed to a higher number of gaming tables allocated to MGM China as part of the new concession.
In other news, MGM China confirmed in a Wednesday filing the pricing and net proceeds due from its freshly-announced issuance of US$500-million in senior unsecured notes.
The casino firm said it had clinched on Tuesday a purchase agreement with BofA Securities Inc., and Deutsche Bank AG, Singapore Branch as the representatives of the initial professional-investor purchasers.
The notes carry a coupon of 7.125 percent, and mature on June 26, 2031.
MGM China said the net proceeds would be approximately US$493.1 million, after deducting the discounts of the initial purchasers and other estimated offering expenses.
It added: “The company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering… to repay a portion of the amounts outstanding under the revolving credit facility.”
MGM China said it would be “permitted to reborrow such amounts under the revolving credit facility”.
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