MGM Mirage, the biggest casino owner on the Las Vegas Strip, reported a first quarter profit from the sale of a casino. Shares extended gains after the company said business was stabilizing.
Net income dropped 11 percent to US$105.2 million, or US$0.38 a share, from US$118.3 million, or US$0.40, a year earlier, the Las Vegas-based company said in a statement yesterday. The results included a gain of US$0.44 from the sale of Treasure Island.
Revenue tumbled 20 percent to US$1.5 billion from US$1.88 billion a year earlier. MGM Mirage is selling rooms at steep discounts through Web sites such as Orbitz to attract tourists in the city’s worst gambling slump on record. The worst may be over, chief executive officer Jim Murren said.
“Cancellations have tapered off and we see signs that business levels seem to be stabilizing,” Murren said in a statement.
Hotel occupancy was “unusually low in January, improved in February, and returned to a normalized level of approximately 95 percent in March,” MGM Mirage said.
MGM Mirage advanced 4.5 percent to US$9.86 in extended trading. Earlier, the shares rose US$1.58, or 20 percent, to US$9.44 at 4pm in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
The shares have surged fourfold since the end of March. The rise includes a 53 percent increase since April 29, when MGM Mirage and partner Dubai World reached an agreement with banks that will allow them to finish construction the US$8.5 billion CityCenter project on the Las Vegas Strip.
MGM Mirage also resolved a lawsuit with Dubai World over CityCenter and won more time from lenders to restructure its corporate finances.
The company, with more than US$14 billion in debt at the end of the quarter, is considering all options, including asset sales and debt buybacks as it restructures, and has enough unencumbered assets to raise more capital, Murren said in an interview last Wednesday.
Wynn Resorts Ltd and Las Vegas Sands Corp, MGM Mirage’s two biggest Strip competitors with publicly traded shares, both report first-quarter earnings today.
MGM Mirage has nine casinos on the Las Vegas strip. The company, controlled by Kirk Kerkorian, was offering rooms through Orbitz last month starting from US$81 at Mirage and from US$139 at its highest-end resort, Bellagio.
Convention attendance fell 29 percent in the first two months of the year, the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority said.
The revenue MGM Mirage gets for each available room in Las Vegas, a measure of rates and occupancy called Revpar, fell 34 percent in the quarter to US$102.
Las Vegas Strip casino gambling revenue tumbled 23 percent in February.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source