MGM Cotai delays opening

After a small fire took place in the construction site of MGM Cotai, operators confirmed that the opening date will be pushed back.

Macau.- MGM China Holdings Ltd revealed that it delayed the opening of the MGM Cotai that was supposed to open in Macau during the fourth quarter of the year to January 29, 2018. The facility suffered multiple incidents and the Typhoon Hato that left rumors over its opening.

The new opening date was set just before the Chinese New Year, therefore MGM is expecting a good start as the city during that date is typically packed and sees increases in gambling. MGM China said that the delay was due to the Typhoon Hato that hit Macau during the last week of August and destroyed multiple parts of the city. Moreover, after the storm the casino went through a fire that left one of the workers in the hospital. During those two events, the facility was forced to close its doors for a month approximately.

“MGM Cotai was… damaged by this unforeseen event. The company has since evaluated the situation and developed a revised schedule for completing repair works and processing governmental inspections necessary for obtaining relevant licenses to operate MGM Cotai,” said MGM China said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

As GGRAsia reported, analysts Carlo Santarelly and Danny Valoy said that whilst a delay was expected, they believe that it is likely to cause some frustration. “Macau stocks tend to rally into openings, thus, the delay pushes the potential [MGM China] stock rally into calendar 2018.”

Furthermore, brokerage Nomura said: “After five weeks’ evaluation, MGM’s [MGM China’s] engineers determined that [Typhoon] Hato caused enough damage to require one to two months of repair. It may also be that MGM wanted more time to put the finishing touches on its most important next opening so that the opening would be as successful as National Harbor’s was.”