Australia will analyze Melco Crown Entertainment as part of Crown’s expansion plans. Macau’s Business Daily paper report that Aussie authorities will pore over the company as part of Crown’s “probity and suitability” test that is being done by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority of New South Wales. It comes as James Packer looks to take a majority stake in Echo Entertainment and the authority added: “This will involve liaison with a large number of regulatory and enforcement agencies, both nationally and internationally.
Galaxy Entertainment Group chairman Lui Che-woo will be keeping the company all in the family with his son confirmed as his successor when he gives up the box seat. South China Morning Post reports that Francis Lui Yiu Tung, vice chairman of the group, will take control of the firm’s casino business in Macau. This leaves the younger son Alexander Lui Yiu-wah, executive director of developer K Wah International, also owned by Lui Che-woo, with control of the company’s Hong Kong based operations.
Macau is set to record the lowest growth rate in almost three years whilst at the same time breaking the record for the second best month ever. On the eve of the results being released by Macau’s gaming industry regulator, Bloomberg report the median of five different analysts’ projections is just 7 percent – the lowest since July 2009. This could easily be offset by the fact that revenue will hit MOP26 billion and become the second highest on record. Analysts are blaming the lower figures on less high stakes gaming revenue and it seems to fit with the worries that some have been expressing for quite some time.
