MGM MIRAGE is to give its name to the Ho Tram Strip—Vietnam’s self-proclaimed first ‘Las Vegas style’ integrated gaming resort, says Asian Coast Development Ltd (ACDL), the consortium behind the project.
The project will be known as MGM Grand Ho Tram. This will probably work well in Asia, though AGI doubts the name would go down quite so well in Las Vegas.
“ACDL will own and finance the project, and MGM MIRAGE will provide development assistance, brand equity and operate the five-star integrated resort property upon completion,” the developers said in a statement.
‘Brand equity’ is presumably a fancy way of saying ‘name’ or ‘branding’. How far the MGM MIRAGE name will take ACDL is a moot point. A resort is only as good as the labour pool from which it recruits as a number of the Las Vegas operators have found in Macau. Also, when MGM set up shop in the Macau casino market in a 50:50 joint venture with Dr Stanley Ho’s daughter Pansy, the company had expected to get commercial benefit from the MGM movie studio branding, even though the two businesses are no longer connected and haven’t been for years. There was just one problem. No one in China watched Hollywood movies or seemed to have the faintest idea what the lion trademark was all about.
The fact MGM MIRAGE will not be bringing hard cash to the table in Vietnam is no great surprise. It’s been struggling to raise the USD3 billion it needs for the CityCenter project in Las Vegas. The company’s recent USD750 million debt issue has already been classified as ‘junk’ by one of the ratings agencies––though these are of course the same ratings agencies that brought us global meltdown.
MGM Grand Ho Tram will be the centerpiece of the USD4.2 billion multi-property Ho Tram Strip complex on the southwest coast of Vietnam, 80 miles from Ho Chi Minh City. ACDL has already broken ground for the MGM Grand portion of the resort. MGM Grand Ho Tram will be surrounded by an 18-hole, Greg Norman designed, PGA champion level golf course and is scheduled to open in 2011.
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