MGM China Holdings Ltd (美高梅中國控股) is to inject 4.8 billion patacas (US$592 million) into a subsidiary to qualify the unit to bid for a new Macau casino license ahead of the expiry of existing permits at the end of this year.
The injection would enable MGM Grand Paradise Ltd (美高梅金殿超濠) to fulfill a requirement that license-holding companies must have at least 5 billion patacas in capital, according to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing on Sunday.
If the tender is successful, Pansy Ho (何超瓊) is to serve as managing director of the unit for the entire term of the license.
Photo: Reuters
Ho, daughter of late casino tycoon Stanley Ho (何鴻燊), is to receive 730,000 Class B shares and earn US$8 million a year. She would also be entitled to incentive payments of up to US$95 million over the license term, based on MGM Grand Paradise’s earnings.
Macau’s new gaming law requires the licensee to have a managing director who is a permanent resident to hold at least 15 percent of the company’s capital, up from the 10 percent required for current casino permits.
Upon completion of the share arrangement, MGM China would hold almost 85 percent of the unit’s capital and voting rights, Ho would have 15 percent and MGM China’s parent MGM Resorts International would own 0.4 percent, down from the current 10 percent, MGM China said in the statement.
The announcement offers some of the first clues as to how major casinos would navigate Macau’s industry overhaul. Despite bleeding millions of dollars of cash every day as China’s “zero COVID” policy batters tourism, Macau’s six operators have all expressed interest in securing new permits, which would allow them to stay in one of the world’s top gambling markets for a maximum of 10 more years.
Operators also need to make substantial commitments in non-gaming industries and are required to plan investments in areas such as cultivating overseas tourism, organizing art exhibitions, developing Chinese medicine tourism, building theme parks, supporting technology development and hosting international conferences and sports events.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS