MGM China Holdings Ltd, the casino joint venture between MGM Resorts International and Pansy Ho (何超瓊), could raise as much as US$1.5 billion in its Hong Kong initial public offering, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The Macau casino operator began gauging investors’ demand yesterday and aims to start trading on June 3, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information is private. Stock worth US$1 billion to US$1.5 billion may be offered in the sale, they said.
MGM China is selling shares as rivals, including Wynn Resorts Ltd (永利度假村) and Las Vegas Sands Corp, said first-quarter revenue from Macau, the only place in China where casinos are legal, surged. Gambling revenue in the former Portuguese colony soared 58 percent last year to 188.3 billion patacas (US$23.5 billion), about four times that of the Las Vegas Strip.
“It’s very good timing for MGM to sell stock with Macau casinos posting record profits,” said Kenny Tang, Hong Kong-based executive director of AMTD Financial Planning Ltd (尚乘財富策劃有限公司). “Demand still outstrips supply in Macau’s gambling market and people expect revenue to climb further.”
MGM China’s management will start meeting potential investors on Tuesday next week to market the offering, the people with knowledge of the matter said. Bank of America Corp’s Merrill Lynch unit, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Morgan Stanley are managing the sale. Sidney Luk, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for MGM China, declined to comment.
The company had planned to raise about US$800 million, according to two people with knowledge of the matter last month.
Ho’s father, billionaire Stanley Ho (何鴻燊), held a gambling monopoly in Macau for four decades before the entry of foreign casino operators starting from 2002. Casino revenue in Macau climbed 43 percent to 79 billion patacas in the first four months of this year, according to data from the territory’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
Macau gambling revenue may increase by more than 25 percent this year, cementing the territory’s position as the world’s biggest gambling hub by sales, Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Joe Poon said in a report.
MGM Resorts, founded by Kirk Kerkorian, would gain control of MGM China by acquiring shares from Pansy Ho, the US company said in a statement on April 13. Ho would sell 1 percent of MGM China Holdings Ltd to Kerkorian’s company, lifting his stake to 51 percent, according to the release.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six