MGM Resorts increases equity commitment for Japan IR
The announcement was made by Jonathan Halkyard, MGM Resorts’ chief financial officer.
Japan.- MGM Resorts International has raised its equity commitment for MGM Osaka, Japan’s upcoming first integrated resort with a casino, to JPY428bn (US$2.96bn). The announcement was made by Jonathan Halkyard, the chief financial officer and treasurer of MGM Resorts International, following the company’s first quarter 2025 financial results conference call.
Halkyard said: “In Japan, MGM’s equity commitment has increased to JPY428bn, of which we now have remaining about JPY392bn to invest for our future 43.5 per cent ownership stake. Despite the increase driven by updated spend estimates as we finalised our negotiations with contractors, we still have a high conviction and a high teens percentage return on this project and remain on time to open in 2030.”
Halkyard said the casino operator expects to invest approximately US$600m to US$700m annually over the next four years through 2028. The financing for the development of the IR includes a JPY530bn (US$3.53bn) credit facility intended to support construction.
A groundbreaking ceremony for MGM Osaka was held on April 24. The event organised by Osaka IR KK was attended by Hirofumi Yoshimura, the governor of Osaka, along with representatives from MGM Resorts International and Japan’s Orix Corp, the main partners in the project, and from smaller-scale Japanese investors.
The IR will be built on Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka Bay in the Kansai region. It is expected to cost JPY1.27tn (US$ 8.9bn) and is anticipated to generate annual revenue of JPY520bn, of which about 80 per cent is expected to come from the casino. Construction is expected to finish in the summer of 2030, and operations are slated to commence by autumn that year.
MGM Osaka will feature a hotel with around 2,500 rooms. It will also include about 400,000 square feet of conference facilities, 330,000 square feet of exhibition space and a theatre with around 3,500 seats.
