Billionaire Steven Wynn’s Macau casino company jumped 13 percent in its trading debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday. Wynn Macau Ltd shares peaked at HK$11.4 (US$1.47) before falling back and trading at HK$10.80 in the afternoon. Shares in the initial public offering were sold at HK$10.08 each, the high end of range at which they were marketed to investors, raising US$1.63 billion.
Wynn’s Macau resort, whose curved, bronze-tinted hotel tower bears a resemblance to his trademark Las Vegas property, has been immensely profitable and helped the company weather the downturn in the US. Profits for the first six months of this year stood at around US$115 million.
The IPO, representing a 25 percent stake in Wynn’s Macau operations, was Hong Kong’s second-biggest of the year and among its most watched due partly to the novelty of a famous, high-end US company deciding to list on the Chinese financial center’s exchange.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
“We have become more of a Chinese company, something that Mr. Wynn ... always wanted,” Allan Zeman, a Wynn Macau director and well-known Hong Kong businessman, said at the Hong Kong stock exchange before trading opened. Wynn, who visited the region recently to promote the offering, was not on hand.
Las Vegas-based Wynn operates one resort in Macau, the world’s largest gambling market, and has a second scheduled to open next year.
The IPO precedes a similar move by Las Vegas Sands Corp, led by tycoon and Wynn rival Sheldon Adelson, who is expected to sell shares in his company’s Macau operations and list them on Hong Kong’s stock exchange.
The robust demand for Wynn’s stock was partly due to better investor sentiment following a revival in Macau, located an hour’s ferry ride from Hong Kong and the one place in China where casinos are legal.
Revenue growth started tapering off during the depths of the economic crisis but has picked up in recent months thanks to a stronger Chinese economy and an easing of visa restrictions on mainland gamblers who are the lifeblood of the city’s casinos.
In August, the enclave had its best month ever, raking in almost 11.4 billion patacas (US$1.4 billion). Early reports suggest last month was even better with over 50 percent growth compared with the same period last year.
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