Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited is a developer, owner and operator of
integrated resort
An integrated resort (IR) is a major resort property that includes a hotel with a casino, together with convention facilities, entertainment shows, theme parks, luxury retail and fine dining. The term is largely Singaporean.
Earlier IR lic ...
s with entertainment and
casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
gaming facilities in
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
and
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
. Based in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
, the company is listed on the
NASDAQ.
Originally known as Melco Crown Entertainment (Melco Crown or MPEL),
Melco Resorts was founded in 2004
as a joint venture between
Melco International and
Crown Limited
Crown Resorts Limited is Australia's largest gaming and entertainment group that owns and operates two of Australia's leading gambling and entertainment complexes, Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth. It was listed on the Australian Securities Ex ...
.
Melco Crown became Melco Resorts & Entertainment
in May 2017
and currently operates as a subsidiary of Melco International.
Melco Resorts owns a number of integrated casino resorts, having launched
Altira Macau
Altira Macau (, Portuguese: Altira Macau) formerly known as Crown Macau, is an integrated resort and casino in Taipa, Macau, SAR China. The hotel complex has 216 guest rooms and a spa. Altira Macau is the tallest building in Taipa and among the ...
in 2007,
City of Dreams Macau in 2009,
City of Dreams Manila
City of Dreams Manila is a luxury integrated resort and casino complex located on the Entertainment City gaming strip at Asean Avenue and Roxas Boulevard in Parañaque, Metro Manila, Philippines.
Overview
It is owned by Melco Resorts and Enter ...
in 2015,
and
Studio City Macau
Studio City is a hotel casino resort on the Cotai Strip in Cotai, Macau. The Hollywood studio-themed leisure resort is the first in Asia to integrate television and film production facilities, retail, gaming and hotels. It is majority-owned ...
in 2015. It also operates the Mocha Clubs
slot machine
A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...
brand
and is in the process of constructing the City of Dreams Mediterranean resort in
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
, which will be the largest casino-resort in Europe.
Other projects under construction include an
onsen spa and a
ski resort
A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In Nort ...
in
Japan.
History
Founding as Melco Crown Entertainment (2004-2015)
In 2004
Melco International Development Limited
Melco International Development Limited, formerly The Macao Electric Lighting Company Limited, is a multinational investment holding company based in Central, Hong Kong. partnered with
James Packer
James Douglas Packer (born 8 September 1967) is an Australian billionaire businessman and investor. Packer is the son of Kerry Packer , a media mogul, and his wife, Roslyn Packer . He is the grandson of Sir Frank Packer. He inherited control ...
's Australian casino company
Crown Limited
Crown Resorts Limited is Australia's largest gaming and entertainment group that owns and operates two of Australia's leading gambling and entertainment complexes, Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth. It was listed on the Australian Securities Ex ...
, creating the joint venture Melco Crown Entertainment Limited
to invest in gaming ventures in
Macau
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...
.
Melco International's chief executive,
Lawrence Ho
Lawrence Ho Yau-lung (; born 1977) is a Hong Kong-born Canadian businessman. Starting his career as an investment banker at Jardine Fleming and Citibank, in 2001 he took over operations at Melco International. Later named chairman and CEO, ...
, was appointed CEO and executive director of Melco Crown Entertainment in December 2004,
with both Ho and Packer appointed co-chairmen.
In March 2006, Melco Crown spent US$900 million to purchase the last of
Macau
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...
's six gaming licenses from
Wynn Resorts
Wynn or wyn (; also spelled wen, ƿynn, and ƿen) is a letter of the Old English alphabet, where it is used to represent the sound .
History The letter "W"
While the earliest Old English texts represent this phoneme with the digraph , ...
. The license allowed Melco Crown to "operate an unlimited number of casinos, tables and machines in Macau until June 2022,"
and the company began developing its first casino.
Melco Crown listed on the
NASDAQ in December 2006
and launched
Altira Macau
Altira Macau (, Portuguese: Altira Macau) formerly known as Crown Macau, is an integrated resort and casino in Taipa, Macau, SAR China. The hotel complex has 216 guest rooms and a spa. Altira Macau is the tallest building in Taipa and among the ...
in July 2007,
which was built for $1.45 billion.
Crown Limited's interest in Melco Crown was around 36% by June 2009,
and in that year Melco Crown opened its flagship $2.4 billion casino resort
City of Dreams Macau in
Cotai
Cotai (; pt, Zona do Aterro de Cotai) is a piece of newly reclaimed land on top of Seac Pai Bay between Taipa and Coloane islands in Macau, that has made two independent islands become one island, since 2005. The word (a portmanteau of Coloan ...
.
Melco Crown listed its shares on the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange at the end of 2011.
Also in 2011, Melco Crown acquired a 60% interest in
Studio City Macau
Studio City is a hotel casino resort on the Cotai Strip in Cotai, Macau. The Hollywood studio-themed leisure resort is the first in Asia to integrate television and film production facilities, retail, gaming and hotels. It is majority-owned ...
, a large-scale integrated resort project in
Cotai
Cotai (; pt, Zona do Aterro de Cotai) is a piece of newly reclaimed land on top of Seac Pai Bay between Taipa and Coloane islands in Macau, that has made two independent islands become one island, since 2005. The word (a portmanteau of Coloan ...
.
[About Crown: Summary of key businesses](_blank)
at Crown Ltd official website[Chan, Kelvi]
''Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
'', 6 July 2012, at Yahoo! Finance Designed with a
Hollywood theme, the casino resort opened in October 2015 with a cost $3.2 billion.
In its first project outside of Macau, in 2012 Melco Crown began partnering with
SM Investments on the $1 billion casino resort
City of Dreams Manila
City of Dreams Manila is a luxury integrated resort and casino complex located on the Entertainment City gaming strip at Asean Avenue and Roxas Boulevard in Parañaque, Metro Manila, Philippines.
Overview
It is owned by Melco Resorts and Enter ...
in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
,
in which Melco Crown was expected to invest up to $580 million.
The casino resort opened in 2015.
Melco Resorts & Entertainment, Melco Creative Exchange Fund (2016-2020)
Melco International became the majority shareholder of Melco Crown in May 2016.
Crown Limited subsequently "suffered debts from ill-timed investments," according to the ''
South China Morning Post'', giving Melco International "the chance to buy up Packer’s shares."
After developing four integrated resorts together,
Melco International ended its partnership with Crown Resorts in May 2017
and purchased stake in Crown for $1.16 billion,
with Melco Crown rebranded as Melco Resorts & Entertainment.
Ho officially became
COO
COO or coo may refer to:
Business
* Certificate of origin, used in international trade
* Chief operating officer or chief operations officer, high-ranking corporate official
* Concept of operations, used in Systems Engineering Management Process
...
, CEO, and chairman of Melco Resorts in April 2017,
overseeing three resorts in Macau, eight Mocha Clubs, the resort in the Philippines, and the development in Cyprus.
Melco's Mocha Clubs, opened in 2003 by Melco International in Macau,
earlier had helped introduce "cafe-style slot-machine parlors" to Macau.
Melco Resorts announced in December 2017 that its Crown Towers hotels at City of Dreams in Macau and Manila would be rebranded as Nüwa.
In June 2018, Melco Resorts & Entertainment opened
Morpheus
Morpheus ('Fashioner', derived from the grc, μορφή meaning 'form, shape') is a god associated with sleep and dreams. In Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' he is the son of Somnus and appears in dreams in human form. From the Middle Ages, the name b ...
, a $1.1 billion hotel tower designed by
Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ar, زها حديد ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer, recognised as a major figure in architecture of the late 20th and early 21st centu ...
for City of Dreams Macau.
In July 2018, Melco Resorts opened the first
esports stadium in Macau at Studio City.
[Casino company Melco envisions esports as big draw for Japan resort](_blank)
/ref> In the same year, Melco Resorts also won a license to build the largest casino-resort in Europe, securing a 30-year license for an integrated resort in Limassol
Limassol (; el, Λεμεσός, Lemesós ; tr, Limasol or ) is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the district with the same name. Limassol is the second largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population ...
, Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
with 15 years of exclusivity. Melco's City of Dreams Mediterranean casino resort is expected to open in 2021, with a temporary casino opened in Limassol, and satellite facilities in Nicosia and Larnaca
Larnaca ( el, Λάρνακα ; tr, Larnaka) is a city on the south east coast of Cyprus and the capital of the district of the same name. It is the third-largest city in the country, after Nicosia and Limassol, with a metro population of 1 ...
opened in 2018 in the interim. Melco Resorts purchased a controlling stake in the Cyprus project in June 2019. Also that year, Melco Resorts announced that it was purchasing a stake in Crown Resorts from James Packer, with further stake increases to take place as it received regulatory approval. Melco Resorts sold the entirety of its stake in Crown Resorts to Blackstone Group Inc. in May 2020.
After new legislation legalized casinos in Japan in 2018, three integrated resort licenses were made available to bidders. new legislation legalized casinos in Japan in 2018, Melco Resorts submitted preliminary documents to the Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
government to bid there for an integrated resort[thestandard.com](_blank)
/ref> and announced it would be willing to invest as much as $10 billion in such a project. Describing project features such as an esports stadium, Melco Resorts also asserted that the project would bring tens of thousands of foreign workers to Japan. In August 2019, Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...
became the second Japanese city besides Osaka to begin accepting bids, announcing its candidate site as Yamashita Pier. Adopting a "Yokohama-First" policy and stating that the location had become their "main focus," Melco Resorts dropped its bid in Osaka in September 2019 and began pitching "the world's biggest integrated resort" in Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...
. Also in September 2019, Melco Resorts began constructing an office in Yokohama.
In August 2019, Melco Resorts became the official sponsor of Manchester City in Japan, while also sponsoring its sister club Yokohama F. Marinos
is a Japanese professional football club based in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club competes in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country.
Having won the J-League title four times an ...
.Man City and Yokohama combine for Melco partnership
/ref> Melco Resorts announced that it has appointed tennis player Naomi Osaka
is a Japanese professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and is the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles. Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam singles champio ...
to serve as its brand ambassador in October 2019, and that she was also director of sports for Melco's Japanese resorts. On October 29, Melco Resorts announced that it has invested $248 million in a fund to back hospitality projects in Japan. Independent of the integrated resort bid in Yokohama, The Melco Creative Exchange Fund was created specifically for non-gaming hotel projects.[Melco signs Naomi Osaka as brand ambassador](_blank)
/ref> The first two announced developments for the fund were an onsen hot spring resort in Hakone
is a List of towns in Japan, town in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the town had a population of 11,293 and a population density of 122 persons per km². The total area of the town is . The town is a popular tourist destination due to its many o ...
with "an onsen 'in every hotel room'" as well as a ski resort in Nagano Nagano may refer to:
Places
* Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan
** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture
*** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics
*** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano
*** Nagano Universi ...
, both to be opened in the mid 2020s.[nikkei.com](_blank)
/ref>
Properties
*Studio City Macau
Studio City is a hotel casino resort on the Cotai Strip in Cotai, Macau. The Hollywood studio-themed leisure resort is the first in Asia to integrate television and film production facilities, retail, gaming and hotels. It is majority-owned ...
(60% ownership)
* City of Dreams
*City of Dreams Manila
City of Dreams Manila is a luxury integrated resort and casino complex located on the Entertainment City gaming strip at Asean Avenue and Roxas Boulevard in Parañaque, Metro Manila, Philippines.
Overview
It is owned by Melco Resorts and Enter ...
*Altira Macau
Altira Macau (, Portuguese: Altira Macau) formerly known as Crown Macau, is an integrated resort and casino in Taipa, Macau, SAR China. The hotel complex has 216 guest rooms and a spa. Altira Macau is the tallest building in Taipa and among the ...
* Morpheus Macau
*Mocha Clubs
*Cyprus Casinos
References
External links
* {{official website, http://www.melco-resorts.com
Companies of Hong Kong
Companies of Macau
Gambling companies of Macau
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Entertainment companies established in 2017
2017 establishments in Hong Kong
2006 initial public offerings