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MACAU BUSINESS
by Paulo A. Azevedo Photographs by António Mil-Homens
Great expectations
When much of the Cotai Strip went into mothballs as the cash dried
up, City of Dreams just kept on going. There were some who said he
couldn’t deliver on his opening-date promise, but he did, and as
Lawrence Ho explains in an extensive and revealing interview with
Macau Business his dream will be good for everyone
Y
ou have kept your word and City of
Dreams has arrived as planned. What
made you risk this opening when the
market is less appealing than in
previous years?
Lawrence Ho: I think in life there is no perfect
timing and at the end of the day for us the way we
manage the business has been on the conservative
side in terms of stretching our balance sheet and
over committing ourselves.
We have been conservative in the last few years and
we raised all the necessary equity in 2007 and 2008
and even very recently we raised a little bit more
equity just to provide a little more buffer for us to
manoeuvre.
We have always been committed to delivering the
City of Dreams as per the timetable, and since all the
financing was in place, and of course once you
borrow bank financing you do have during a year or
two a banking schedule as well, for us is just full
steam ahead.
From a more realistic and practical point of view,
you let me choose between opening the City of
Dreams in June this year when there’s only one
casino open, or when Crown Macau opened in May
2007, when there were four casino openings, I choose
this time. The Crown Macau experience, now known
as Altira, is infamous because it was so horrific.
We had trouble finishing the project because the
contractors were trying to hold us hostage saying that a lot better and of course we have learned from our
between MGM and Venetian they had plenty of jobs mistakes in the past and we have managed to better
and if we couldn’t pay them more they wouldn’t even ourselves. But without these macro external factors it
come to work. is very likely we could have run into similar
Now the whole world has changed because these situations. All-in-all it’s not bad.
contractors, due to the layoffs at [LVS] sites five and
six and the stoppage of other projects at Galaxy, Be in the top three
these guys are happy to have a job.
Therefore, in terms of workmanship they are And of course you gain momentum by
putting a lot more effort and energy into finishing succeeding when others are succumbing. Surely
the product which is great for us. The budget is on this makes you smile, at least for the time being…
target, so, all-in-all the experience this time around is
12 JULY/AUGUST 2009
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