Melco Resorts & Entertainment revealed overnight that it remains undecided on whether to follow through with the proposed sale of its 50% stake in City of Dreams Manila, with a final decision expected by the end of the year following conclusion of a strategic review.
In comments made during Melco’s 3Q25 earnings call, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Geoff Davis said that although the company had received offers for City of Dreams Manila, it was not necessarily committed to a sale and would base its decision on value.
“We are approaching the end of the process with our advisors and should have a definitive assessment of our alternatives by the end of this year,” Davis explained.
“This has always been an opportunistic exercise that’s been driven by the potential for a one-off debt reduction event – not any specific desire to exit the Manila market.
“We have and will continue to be very valuation-driven on this exercise and we’ll continue to be disciplined in our approach to assessing the offers that we have for this business. We hope to be back by year-end with a definitive answer.”
Davis also pointed out that, while the possible sale of City of Dreams Manila is aimed at reducing debt, Melco’s recent focus on deleveraging could ease somewhat over the coming year with the company keen to resume the payment of dividends by the end of 2026.
“We’ve had some meaningful success in paying down some of the debt that we incurred during the three challenging years of COVID,” he said.
“However, going into next year, we plan to take a more balanced approach using our free cash. While debt reduction will continue to be a primary mandate, we aim to potentially recommence the quarterly dividend by the end of next year.”
Melco revealed that it had US$2.6 billion of available liquidity, including consolidated cash on hand of around US$1.6 billion, at the end of 3Q25 but more importantly does not have any material amount of debt maturing in 2026 following a recent US$500 million bond issuance.
Davis said the company had further reduced debt by US$180 million in Q3 and would repay another US$180 million in October and November.
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