News GENTING Bhd announced that it is acquiring the
Echelon site on the Las Vegas Strip from Boyd Gaming Corp for USD350m and has
outlined plans to build a USD2.0b hotel-casino resort on the 87-acre
development, which was halted since the recession in Aug 2008.
The partially
completed structures include: 1) a 10-level hotel tower, 2) a 2-level casino
podium, 3) a 3-level convention centre, 4) a 3-4 level theatre and 5) 3-6
levels of parking garages.
According to news
reports, the project, which will be known as Resorts World Las Vegas, will include
3,500 rooms and a 175,000 sq ft casino in the initial phase, and is expected to
open in 2016.
Comments This is not unexpected as it has been longing
for casino operations in the US. It will be the group’s third venture in the US
after New York and Miami. This will also be the group’s first casino in the
country as its current operation, Resorts World New York City, is just a
racino.
According to Wall
Street Journey, the freehold land purchase price of USD4m/acre is among the lowest
in a decade in the Las Vegas Strip as developers had spent USD34.7m/acre for
empty land here in the pre-crisis period of Jul 2007.
With the group’s
current record cash pile of RM21.0b and its experience in Resorts World Sentosa,
it should have the financial strength and ability to execute this project.
Although this was
announced by GENTING, we believe it may eventually be housed under GENM.
Outlook It is still too early to gauge the earnings
accretion as Las Vegas casinos have yet to recover from its deep downturn. 2012
gaming revenue in Las Vegas Strip only grew 2% YoY and is still 10% down from
2007 glory day levels. However, with its Asian background, GENTING may be able
to attract Chinese gamblers to this new casino resort.
Nonetheless, the
completion date of 2016 is beyond our forecast horizon.
Forecast We are keeping our FY13-FY14 forecast unchanged
for now.
Rating Maintain MARKET PERFORM
Valuation Our target price is maintained at
RM10.22/share based on an unchanged 20% holding company discount to its SOP.
Risks The risk to this project could be the
execution risk and the slower than expected recovery of the casino business in
the Las Vegas Strip.
Source: Kenanga
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