Analysts are placing high hopes for MGM China’s Cotai venture, months before it opens its doors to public.
Brokerage Union Gaming Securities LLC forecasts the MGM Cotai casino resort to bring in US$214 million of adjusted property earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2017.
That estimate, according to Union Gaming analyst John DeCree, is based on three quarters of the casino’s operations.
There has been speculations that the casino resort’s opening will be pushed back to the second quarter of 2017, but Hong Kong-based MGM China Holdings Ltd. co-chairperson Pansy Ho Chiu King assured that the scheduled opening for the MGM Cotai project in the first quarter of 2017 remains on track.
MGM Cotai is only one of the three resort projects that U.S.-based MGM Resorts International, parent owner of MGM China, has in the development pipeline.
Scheduled to be completed ahead of MGM Cotai is the $1.3-billion MGM National Harbor, which will feature 300 hotel rooms and host up to 3,600 slot machines and 160 table games. The Maryland casino is expected to achieve $157 million of EBITDA in its first full year of operation, according to DeCree.
“Our favorable outlook for MGM National Harbor is based on the quality of the asset MGM built coupled with lucrative demographics,” the analyst said in a note. “There is an estimated 8.3 million people located within an hour drive of the property. The area also benefits from significant tourism and international travel.”
Meanwhile, MGM’s $865-million venture in Massachusetts—MGM Springfield—is forecast to have $110 million of adjusted property EBITDA after it opens in late 2018.
“MGM has one of the most robust new development pipelines in the industry, with three major properties scheduled to open over the next two years in addition to the Monte Carlo repositioning and Aria convention space expansion,” DeCree said.
