It seems like the Macau gaming business has gotten nothing but one bad piece of bad news after another in the past year and a half. From the Chinese government corruption crackdown driving away VIP gamblers to slumping revenue numbers to a casino smoking ban to disappointing gaming table allocations at new resorts to junket embezzlement to general weakness in the Chinese economy, things have simply been going from bad to worse in Macau.
Not surprisingly, investors can add nose-diving share prices to the mix of bad news, as shares of Macau casino operators Wynn Resorts, Limited (NADAQ: WYNN), Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:MPEL) and Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) are all down big this year.
However, outspoken billionaire WYNN CEO Steve Wynn recently purchased $60 million Christmas gift for himself that gives shareholders hope for a turnaround in WYNN’s performance. Earlier this month, Wynn disclosed that he purchased more than 1 million shares of WYNN stock on the open market at a cost of more than $60 million.
Wynn’s legacy
While it’s unclear just yet whether Wynn’s purchase was a shrewd investing decision, one thing is for certain when it comes to Wynn: he knows the casino business. Ever since he took a controlling stake in downtown Las Vegas’ Golden Nugget casino back in 1971 and transformed the iconic landmark from a gambling hall to an enormously successful resort and casino, Steve Wynn has been the driving force behind the construction of some of the biggest, most lavish and most successful resorts in the world.
In October 1998, Wynn opened the Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip, a AAA Five Diamond resort that remains one of the most spectacular hotels in the world 17 years later. In 1999, Wynn opened the Beau Rivage resort in Biloxi, MS, a 1,835-room development that opened as the largest U.S. hotel-casino ever built outside of the state of Nevada.
After taking Wynn Resorts Limited public in 2002, Wynn opened his most expensive hotel yet on the Las Vegas Strip: the Wynn Las Vegas, which cost $2.7 billion and became the most expensive privately funded construction project in America.
When a handful of casino licenses were offered to Macau outsiders in 2001, Wynn snatched up a license and expanded outside of the U.S. for the first time when he opened Wynn Macau in 2006.
Wynn’s latest project is a $2.6 billion resort under construction in the Cotai Strip in Macau. Wynn Palace will reportedly feature an aerial transport system with gondolas shaped like smoke-breathing dragons, hot-air balloons, pedestal gardens and much more of Wynn’s trademark luxury ambiance and entertainment. Wynn Palace is scheduled to open in June of 2016.
Putting money where his mouth is
When it comes to public image, the job of a public company’s CEO is…
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