Should the Japanese city of Yokohama triumph in the race to secure one of three integrated resort approvals up for grabs, it will come at a huge cost for operators, reports GGRAsia.
A request for information conducted by Yokohama City reveals that capital investment could reach JPY 1.3tn (US$11.9bn), however it hasn’t deterred interested parties, with six firms, four of which have interests in Macau, still holding an interest in a potential construction.
The lowest figure mentioned was in the JPY 620bn (US$5.66bn) region, with it also determined that revenue gleaned from such a facility could be in the JPY 350bn (US$3.2bn) to JPY 880bn (US$8bn) ballpark, with annual earnings before EBITDA potentially reaching JPY 80bn (US$730m) to JPY 210bn (US$ 1.9bn).
Nine of the responds to the request for information by Japan’s second most populous city were willing to be named, and are Caesars Entertainment, Capital and Innovation, Galaxy Entertainment, Genting Singapore, Melco Resorts, MGM Resorts, Sega Sammy, Sotoku and Wynn Resorts.
It is also believed the Las Vegas Sands could well be another name in the running, after the group’s managing director of global development, George Tanasijevich, stressed that the group is only pursuing a big-city Japan casino licence.
Tanasijevich, who is also president and chief executive of Marina Bay Sands, the group’s Singapore casino resort, told GGRAsia that the firm is focused on a “comprehensive and compelling” bid for the group’s “number-one objective” of Osaka.
Tanasijevich is quoted as saying: “We need to be in a major urban metropolitan area to be able to build a strong and substantial MICE business, for instance, and [for] the scale and the diversity of the entertainment that we bring in.”
Adding that a potential LVS property needs to be easily reachable from “major metropolitan areas [and] large population bases,” adding “so that’s really what our focus is and our intent”.
This comes after a delay hit the progression of Japan’s IR’s, after it was revealed that the initial proposed date for the establishment of the country’s Casino Management Board is to be pushed back.
