Inside Asian Gaming

11 Rates up, occupancy down The company said Wynn Macau’s 600-room hotel achieved an average daily room rate of US$272 for the quarter, up 11% on the US$245 achieved in the third quarter of 2007. The property’s occupancy rate slipped, however, to 86.2%, compared to 91.9% during the prior year period, though this was probably a function of new room supply coming on to the market, including, among others, the 3,000 suites at The Venetian Macao. Wynn Macau’s revenue per available room stood at US$234 in Q3 ’08, an increase of 4.2% on the equivalent quarter in 2007. In the third quarter of 2008, Wynn Macau generated net revenues of US$474.8 million, compared to US$347.7 million for the third quarter of 2007. Adjusted property EBITDA increased 14.5% to US$106.3 million (with a 22.4% EBITDA margin on net revenue), compared to US$92.8 million in the third quarter of 2007. EBITDA at Wynn Macau during this quarter was also reduced by a US$11.0 million increase in reserves to cover bad debt. The company says raising the reserves is a deliberately conservative move based on the current global economic uncertainty. Despite the positive performance of Wynn Macau, Mr Wynn appears to be much less bullish about the possibility of a second resort of up to 1,800 rooms on Cotai, the reclamation area south of the Macau peninsula that is home to his rival Sheldon Adelson’s Venetian Macao and to Melco Crown Entertainment’s City of Dreams property due to open in July next year. “I don’t have any kind of pressing need to rush into a new hotel at Cotai, especially until I have some evidence that the expansions of our neighbours have been absorbed by that market,”he told analysts during the Q3 conference call. “At the present moment, there isn’t one shred of evidence to indicate that the current expansions have been absorbed.”