Wynn Macau Ltd has announced a proposed capital restructuring that would see the registered capital of the company’s Macau-based concessionaire subsidiary increased by MOP$4.8 billion via the issue of nominative shares and the voting rights of Vice Chairman, COO and Executive Director Linda Chen increased from 10% to 15%.
The proposed capital restructuring, announced late Sunday after Wynn Macau was provisionally granted a new 10-year Macau gaming concession, is aimed at satisfying a clause in Macau’s new gaming law requiring all concessionaires to have MOP$5 billion in share capital deposited with an approved credit institution.
It also requires each concessionaire to nominate a Macau-based Managing Director who must personally hold a 15% interest in the concession-holding entity. This, however, differs from the holding of any stake or voting rights in the listed parent company.
According to Wynn Macau’s filing, it will satisfy requirements under the new gaming law by issuing MOP$4.8 billion in new Class A, Class B and Class C shares at a par value of MOP$1,000 each, with 729,990 Class A nominative shares to be subscribed by Chen; 2,447,949 Class B nominative shares to be subscribed by Wynn Resorts (Macau), Limited; and 1,621,961 Class C nominative shares to be subscribed by Wynn Resorts International, Ltd.
In addition to the payments for the proposed subscriptions of Class B and Class C nominative shares, Wynn Macau will also pay for the share capital of the new Class A nominative shares to be subscribed by Chen, the company explained.
Under the restructuring, Chen will hold 15% of nominal voting rights, with Wynn Resorts (Macau) holding 51% and Wynn Resorts 34%.
However, the company emphasized that Chen’s new 15% shareholding in Wynn Resorts (Macau) is solely to satisfy the requirements of the Macau gaming law and that her Class A nominative shares “carry no right to dividend beyond a nominal amount, are not in the nature of equity share capital and have no economic value.
“Given the Class A nominative shares held by Ms Linda Chen have restricted rights and only entitle [her] to the nominal amount of dividend payable, the company will be effectively entitled to a 100% economic interest in Wynn Resorts (Macau),” it said.
“Since the company will be effectively entitled to a 100% economic interest in WRM, the reduction of voting rights in Wynn Resorts (Macau) held by the Company from 90% to 85% has no material financial impact on the Group.”
