{"id":777026364,"date":"2025-05-13T08:36:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T11:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777026364"},"modified":"2026-04-21T23:01:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T02:01:38","slug":"potential-buyers-emerge-for-melcos-stake-in-city-of-dreams-manila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/potential-buyers-emerge-for-melcos-stake-in-city-of-dreams-manila","title":{"rendered":"Potential buyers emerge for Melco&#8217;s stake in City of Dreams Manila"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The company&#8217;s executive vice president and chief financial officer said potential buyers would be narrowed down for a bidding process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- <strong>Geoff Davis<\/strong>, Melco&#8217;s executive vice president and chief financial officer, has revealed that the company is in discussions with potential buyers for its stake in City of Dreams Manila. Speaking on a conference call with analysts following the release of <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/melco-reports-11-per-cent-rise-in-q1-operating-revenue\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">first-quarter 2025 financial results<\/a>, Davis said interested parties were signing non-disclosure agreements and reviewing information in a virtual data room. He said potential buyers would be narrowed down for a bidding process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In February, Melco announced it was evaluating potential<strong>\u00a0strategic alternatives\u00a0<\/strong>for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/melco-reports-city-of-dreams-manila-q4-results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">City of Dreams Manila<\/a> with CBRE Capital Advisors and Moelis &amp; Company as financial advisors.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/City-of-Dreams-Manila-interior-900x600.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of City of Dreams Manila.\" class=\"wp-image-777023509\" srcset=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/City-of-Dreams-Manila-interior-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/City-of-Dreams-Manila-interior-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/City-of-Dreams-Manila-interior-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/02\/City-of-Dreams-Manila-interior.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">City of Dreams Manila.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Also during the call, Lawrence Ho Yau Lung, chairman and chief executive of Melco Resorts, acknowledged that increased competition in the Philippine market has affected the performance of the City of Dreams complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the first quarter of 2025, the complex saw operating revenue of US$101.6m, down 8.22 per cent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/city-of-dreams-manila-posts-revenue-of-us110-7m-for-q1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">year-on-year<\/a> and 24.06 per cent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/melco-reports-city-of-dreams-manila-q4-results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sequentially<\/a>. EBITDA was US$30.1m, down from US$37.8m in the same period in 2024 due to softer mass market performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<strong>gaming machine<\/strong>&nbsp;handle was US$1.01bn, compared with US$1.13bn in the first quarter of 2024. The win rate was 5.1 per cent compared with 5 per cent. Non-gaming revenue was US$26.6m, compared with US$28.8m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Melco Resorts also manages casinos in Macau and Cyprus and has a new location in the works in <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/city-of-dreams-sri-lanka-phase-ii-to-open-in-q3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sri Lanka<\/a>. The company reported operating revenue of US$1.23bn for the first quarter of the year,\u00a0a rise of 11 per cent year-on-year amid improved performance in both gaming and non-gaming operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group&#8217;s EBITDA was US$341m compared with US$298.8m in 2024. The net loss attributable to noncontrolling interests was US$4.8m, compared to US$14.6m, the majority relating Studio City and City of Dreams Mediterranean and Other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The company&#8217;s executive vice president and chief financial officer said potential buyers would be narrowed down for a bidding process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777023510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Melco is actively pursuing the divestment of its stake in City of Dreams Manila, engaging potential buyers through a structured bidding process with financial advisors CBRE Capital Advisors and Moelis & Company. This strategic evaluation follows a decline in City of Dreams Manila's Q1 2025 operating revenue and EBITDA, attributed to heightened market competition in the Philippines, despite Melco Resorts reporting overall group-level revenue and EBITDA growth.","focusai_entities":"Melco, Melco Resorts, Geoff Davis, Lawrence Ho Yau Lung, CBRE Capital Advisors, Moelis & Company, Studio City, City of Dreams Mediterranean","focusai_location":"Philippines, Manila, Macau, Cyprus, Sri Lanka","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.7), compliance_legal (0.75), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Valuation Impact","query":"What is the projected valuation range for Melco's stake in City of Dreams Manila, considering the reported Q1 2025 performance decline?"},{"label":"Market Competition","query":"How will increased competition in the Philippine gaming market influence the long-term strategic positioning and profitability of integrated resorts?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16333],"tags":[29,19841,18488],"class_list":["post-777026364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-casino","tag-city-of-dreams-manila","tag-melco-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777026364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777026364"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777026364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777026394,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777026364\/revisions\/777026394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777023510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777026364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777026364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777026364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}