SJM to submit Cotai project this week

SJM Holdings, who runs hotel-casino Grand Lisboa, is looking to submit its project for a Cotai resort as early as this week, said chief executive Ambrose So

Local gaming operator Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) Holdings will submit the master plan for its Cotai resort to the government as early as this week and expects the government to formally approve the land grant soon afterward.
“The Cotai plots, we’re still waiting for the Macau Government’s formal approval of the land grant. We hope that this will come very soon,” said Ambrose So, chief executive officer of SJM.
“We’re doing it now because without this master plan it is not possible for the government to calculate the premium to be charged and to start the land grant [process]. We’ll submit it as quickly as possible because we’ve got the parameters of the design now,” said So.
The executive made the remarks on the sidelines of a ‘wishing tree’ inauguration ceremony last Friday to commemorate Grand Lisboa’s fifth and SJM’s 10th anniversaries.
In December last year, Ambrose So confirmed that the government had agreed to grant a plot in Cotai to SJM but the land premium had not yet been decided. The executive didn’t identify the location of the plot.
But in December 2010 he confirmed that the operator had applied for a piece of land of some 70,000 square metres located next to Macau Dome.
After the premium payment is complete SJM will begin diversifying its business with a bigger investment in non-gaming, So said. The company founded by tycoon Stanley Ho Hung Sun will invest about USD 2 billion (MOP 16 billion) in its Cotai resort.
In addition to SJM, Wynn Macau and MGM China are also waiting for the Administration’s green light to move into Cotai. Although SJM holds the largest gaming market share out of the three, it has yet to set foot in Cotai.
Earlier last week, the director of the Lands Public Works and Transport Bureau, Jaime Carion, said two of the three applications for land grants in Cotai could be approved this year.
On Friday So said joining the ‘Cotai race’ later than everyone else could actually be a good thing for SJM.
“I think in Cotai it’s a different market, unlike those in the [Macau] peninsula which is gaming-oriented, gaming-centric. Of course we have to put in more non-gaming elements into our complex,” he said.
“This is something we have to think about. Being the latecomer we have the advantage of knowing what can be done and what cannot be done, what is successful and what is not successful,” said So.
Last September Wynn announced it had reached an agreement to pay a MOP 1.55 billion government premium for a plot in Cotai but authorities immediately said the concession was still “being reviewed”.
“Visitation to Cotai is indeed growing,” Union Gaming Research wrote, “due to increased supply.” But, the company added in a note to investors, “we believe at least a few more IRs [integrated resorts] are needed in order to achieve the critical mass necessary for visitors to make a conscious choice between visiting only the Macau peninsula or only Cotai”.