Inside Asian Gaming

Oct 2007 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 7 Cover Story plained to Inside Asian Gaming , “it’s always the little things, here and there, that make the difference. Every little thing counts”— from the beaming smiles of the leggy mod- els in the lobby ushering guests to the eleva- tors, to the unpretentious atmosphere at the restaurants and bars. Adding up The little things added up to StarWorld making a HK$545 million (US$70 million) contribution to GEG’s EBITDA (earnings be- fore interest, tax, depreciation and amortisa- tion) in the first half of 2007, and the proper- ty’s net wins per table are now second only to Wynn Macau. Q2 2007 Average Daily Net Win Per Table (HK$) VIP Mass Market Sands Macao 275,000 21,000 StarWorld 390,000 30,500 Wynn Macau 471,000 40,000 GEG is confident that StarWorld’s per- formance will improve further following the addition of two more VIP gaming rooms in October, bringing the total number of VIP tables in the property to more than 70, along with the introduction of a new mar- keting program for the stately fifth floor Jin- men Premier Club. Meanwhile, mass market revenues will be lifted by improvements to the Level I and Level III mass gaming floors, and reconfiguration of Level I to increase the table count. “People probably thought it would be difficult for us to compete with the big boys,” says Mr Lui, but the results show “we are running pretty strongly, and with the opening of the Cotai Mega Resort it will be even stronger.” Dropping the big boy Galaxy had originally submitted (and won) a joint bid for a Macau casino license with Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS), before the two companies decided to go their sepa- rate ways. There was a general perception that Gal- axy had no operating experience when it en- tered the Macau market, and although it did lack gaming experience, Mr Lui points out that Galaxy’s parent company, Hong Kong- based K. Wah Group, operates twenty hotels in the US and three in Hong Kong, and while LVS was to have run the joint venture’s gam- ing operations, Galaxy had always intended to run the hotels. GEG’s parent company also has thirty years of real estate development experi- ence in the Greater China region. “Our construction background gives us a leg up in cost control,” says Mr Lui. Notably, the Hong Kong-listed entity GEG was former- ly K. Wah subsidiary K. Wah Construction StarWorld Hotel & Casino