MGM China is racing the clock to finish some of its highly-anticipated The Mansion luxury villas in time for Chinese New Year in early February 2019. But the company remains on track to launch its premium mass President’s Club gaming area before the end of this year.
The latest update to progress on MGM COTAI’s high-end offerings was delivered by MGM China CEO and Executive Director Grant Bowie during MGM Resorts’ 3Q18 earnings call on Wednesday, with the company having earlier announced a 37% year-on-year increase in net revenue to HK$4.8 billion from its Macau operations for the quarter.
The Mansion, a private enclave housing 27 villas ranging in size from 215 to 570 square meters each, is seen as the last piece in the jigsaw for MGM COTAI’s VIP plans, with five junket operators expected to be up and running at the property in early 2019.
“President’s [Club] will be ready before the end of the year, in December,” Bowie said, “and we’re working really hard to get some of the Mansion villas available for Chinese New Year.
“We have good grounds to think that’s going to happen, so that’s a big positive for us.”
While MGM enjoyed strong growth in 3Q18 on the back of MGM COTAI’s 13 February 2018 launch, much of that growth came from the mass market segment with VIP at MGM COTAI contributing just HK$65.2 million.
Asked about the prospect of ramping its VIP operations at a time when the segment is exhibiting signs of a slowdown, Bowie said, “Clearly market conditions in China are a little more volatile … but the critical point I’ll make on junkets is that there still seems to be a lot of liquidity.
“What this seems to be is much more of a controlled pause rather than the effect of running out of liquidity which is really critical in that segment. So I think what we’re all expecting is a little softness for a little while until we stabilize.
“But once we get the President’s Club done and the Mansion done and all those construction things out of the way, we’re very, very positive that it will allow us to build our base.”
