Wynn Resorts Raises Curtain On Wynn Palace In Macau

Wynn Resorts Ltd.’s (NASDAQ:WYNN) Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Wynn, recently unveiled the Wynn Palace resort in the Cotai area of Macau.

Notably, the long-awaited opening had earlier been postponed twice, from March to June and then to August.

Interestingly, Wynn Palace featuring 1,700 hotel rooms, a lake with gondolas and fountains, floral sculptures, expensive artwork, a meeting space, a casino, a spa, stores and exclusive food-and-beverage outlets cost roughly $4.1 billion and is the first resort of the company in Cotai region.

The company expects the opening of Wynn Palace to boost tourist traffic at Macau and also bring in strong non-gaming revenues for the company.

However, the full-scale integrated resort in Cotai is set to face extreme peer pressure from several local Chinese casino operators and Sands Cotai Central project of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) . Also, MGM Resorts International’s (NYSE:MGM) $2.9 billion casino hotel is set to open in the Cotai strip in 2017.

Meanwhile, we would like to remind investors that the operating environment in Macau has been dreary over the past few quarters due to the Chinese government’s anti-graft corruption drive, which has lowered footfall at casinos.

However, the Macau government’s efforts to boost tourism and traffic in Macau have started yielding results and Wynn Resorts managed to turn around its operations in the region in the second quarter of 2016. Notably, Wynn Macau revenues increased 3.6% year over year in the quarter.

Going forward, it remains to be seen whether Wynn Palace launch will help bring about a new period of prosperity for Macau and drive Wynn Resorts’ performance in the region by attracting more international tourists.

Wynn Resorts currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock in this sector is Monarch Casino & Resort Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI) , sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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