MGM Mirage has hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to evaluate bids for regional casinos in Michigan and Mississippi, a person close to the gaming company said.
Potential buyers have expressed interest in combinations of the assets, said the person, who declined to be named yesterday because the discussions were private.
Las Vegas-based MGM Mirage owns the MGM Grand Detroit, the Beau Rivage in Biloxi and the Gold Strike in Tunica, Mississippi.
Property sales would help lower debt and could aid MGM Mirage in finding a broader solution to issues that weigh on the company and its CityCenter joint venture on the Las Vegas Strip.
Partner Dubai World has sued and asked to be relieved of its funding obligations, a move that threatens to throw the unfinished project into bankruptcy. MGM Mirage also risks default on its US$7 billion senior credit facility.
Morgan Stanley spokesman Mark Lake didn’t return voice and e-mail messages left outside of business hours yesterday.
MGM Mirage, controlled by 91-year-old Kirk Kerkorian, is working to come up with a long-term plan to fund CityCenter by next Monday.
The project’s banks waived defaults for two weeks on the senior secured credit facility after MGM Mirage made a US$200 million construction payment on March 27 that covered Dubai World’s half.
Los Angeles-based buyout firm Colony Capital LLC has held discussions with MGM Mirage and Dubai World that include a possible investment in CityCenter, a person familiar with the discussions said on Wednesday.
Australian billionaire James Packer’s Melbourne-based gambling company, Crown Ltd, is discussing an investment alongside Colony, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Last month, Crown called off a planned US$1.75 billion takeover of Cannery Casino Resorts LLC, owner of three Nevada casinos and the Meadows racetrack near Pittsburgh.
MGM Mirage and Dubai World are obligated to fund about US$800 million more in construction costs before they can access a US$1.8 billion loan to complete the project. MGM can provide its share, said company spokesman Alan Feldman.
“We have the money to complete CityCenter,” Feldman said yesterday in an interview. He declined to comment on speculation regarding Packer’s role.
Geoff Kleeman, a spokesman for Melbourne-based Crown, didn’t return voicemail messages left by Bloomberg News after business hours.
A Dubai World spokesman declined to comment.
MGM Mirage, the largest owner of casinos in Las Vegas with properties including the Bellagio, Luxor and MGM Grand, has seen cash flows decline as recession led the Strip to its biggest drop in gambling revenue on record last year.
The company won a two-month reprieve from banks on March 18 to come up with a debt restructuring plan after auditors questioned the company’s ability to stay in business.
The covenant waivers on the company’s US$7 billion bank-loan facility were contingent on MGM Mirage and Dubai World continuing to fund construction on CityCenter.
MGM Mirage is likely to pursue a combination of asset sales, bond buybacks, fresh secured loans and discounted debt exchanges, as well as raising new capital, chief executive officer James Murren said last month.
He completed the US$775 million sale of the Treasure Island hotel on the Strip to investor Phil Ruffin last month.
The Beau Rivage and MGM Grand Detroit may fetch between US$1 billion and US$2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, citing analysts’ estimates.
Semiconductor business between Taiwan and the US is a “win-win” model for both sides given the high level of complementarity, the government said yesterday responding to tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp. Trump said on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported chips, pharmaceuticals and steel in an effort to get the producers to make them in the US. “Taiwan and the US semiconductor and other technology industries
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pause in rate cuts on Wednesday, as policymakers look to continue tackling inflation under close and vocal scrutiny from US President Donald Trump. The Fed cut its key lending rate by a full percentage point in the final four months of last year and indicated it would move more cautiously going forward amid an uptick in inflation away from its long-term target of 2 percent. “I think they will do nothing, and I think they should do nothing,” Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis former president Jim Bullard said. “I think the
SMALL AND EFFICIENT: The Chinese AI app’s initial success has spurred worries in the US that its tech giants’ massive AI spending needs re-evaluation, a market strategist said Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) eponymous AI assistant rocketed to the top of Apple Inc’s iPhone download charts, stirring doubts in Silicon Valley about the strength of the US’ technological dominance. The app’s underlying AI model is widely seen as competitive with OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc’s latest. Its claim that it cost much less to train and develop triggered share moves across Asia’s supply chain. Chinese tech firms linked to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek Co (科大訊飛), surged yesterday, while chipmaking tool makers like Advantest Corp slumped on the potential threat to demand for Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators. US stock
Cryptocurrencies gave a lukewarm reception to US President Donald Trump’s first policy moves on digital assets, notching small gains after he commissioned a report on regulation and a crypto reserve. Bitcoin has been broadly steady since Trump took office on Monday and was trading at about US$105,000 yesterday as some of the euphoria around a hoped-for revolution in cryptocurrency regulation ebbed. Smaller cryptocurrency ether has likewise had a fairly steady week, although was up 5 percent in the Asia day to US$3,420. Bitcoin had been one of the most spectacular “Trump trades” in financial markets, gaining 50 percent to break above US$100,000 and
RSS