Founding as Melco Crown Entertainment (2004-2015)
In 2004, [4] Melco International Development Limited partnered with James Packer, founder of Australian casino company Crown Limited, creating the joint venture Melco Crown Entertainment Limited [5] to invest in gaming ventures and related businesses in Macau. [3] Melco International's chief executive, Lawrence Ho, was appointed CEO and executive director of Melco Crown Entertainment in December 2004, [4] as well as co-chairmen alongside Packer. [13] In March 2006, Melco Crown spent US$900 million to purchase the last of Macau's six gaming licenses from Wynn Resorts. The license allowed Melco Crown to operate an unlimited number of casinos, tables and machines in Macau until June 2022. [14] Following that, the company began developing its first casino. [5] Melco Crown listed on the NASDAQ in December 2006 [2] and launched Altira Macau in July 2007, [8] which was built for $1.45 billion. [14]
Crown Limited's interest in Melco Crown was around 36% by June 2009, [3] and in that year Melco Crown opened its flagship integrated resort, the $2.4 billion City of Dreams Macau in Cotai. [2] Melco Crown listed its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at the end of 2011. [15] Also in 2011, Melco Crown acquired a 60% interest in Studio City Macau, a large-scale integrated resort project in Cotai. [3] [16] Designed with a Hollywood theme, the integrated resort opened in October 2015 with a cost of $3.2 billion. [2] Outside of Macau, Melco Crown's first project was the development of City of Dreams Manila in the Philippines in 2012, [17] in partnership with SM Investments, with an investment of approximately US$1 billion, in which Melco Crown was expected to invest up to $580 million. [16] The integrated resort opened in 2015. [9]
Melco Resorts & Entertainment (2016-2020)
Melco International became the majority shareholder of Melco Crown in May 2016. [18] 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. [17] After developing four integrated resorts together, [5] Melco International purchased Crown's stake for $1.16 billion in May 2017, [7] ending their long-time partnership, with Melco Crown renamed as Melco Resorts & Entertainment. [6] Ho officially became COO, CEO, and chairman of Melco Resorts in April 2017, [4] overseeing three resorts in Macau, eight Mocha Clubs, City of Dreams (Manila), and the development in Cyprus. [6]
In December 2017, Melco Resorts announced that its Crown Towers hotels at City of Dreams in Macau and Manila would be rebranded as Nüwa. [6] In June 2018, Melco opened Morpheus, a $1.1 billion hotel tower designed by Zaha Hadid for City of Dreams Macau. [5] In July, Melco Resorts opened the first esports stadium in Macau at Studio City. [19] In the same year, Melco Resorts also won a license to build an integrated resort in Limassol, Cyprus, which granted a 30-year license with 15 years of exclusivity. [17] The project is the largest integrated resort in Europe. [6] Melco Resorts purchased a controlling stake in the Cyprus project in June 2019. [17] Furthermore, Melco Resorts announced in 2019 that it was purchasing a stake in Crown Resorts from James Packer, and gradually increased its stake as it received regulatory approval. [20] Melco Resorts sold the entirety of its stake in Crown Resorts to Blackstone Group Inc. in May 2020. [21]
In 2018, Japan passed new legislation legalizing casinos, [20] and opened up bidding for three integrated resort licenses. [22] Melco Resorts submitted preliminary documents to the Osaka government [20] and expressed it was willing to invest as much as $10 billion in an integrated resort project. [23] In August 2019, Yokohama became the second Japanese city besides Osaka to begin accepting bids, announcing its candidate site as Yamashita Pier. [24] Melco Resorts adjusted its strategy, dropping its bid in Osaka in September 2019, [25] stating that Yokohama had become their "main focus," [26] and began pitching "the world's biggest integrated resort". [23] In September of the same year, the company set up an office in Yokohama. [27]
In August 2019, Melco Resorts became the official sponsor of Manchester City in Japan, while also sponsoring its sister club Yokohama F. Marinos. [28] Melco Resorts announced that it has appointed tennis player Naomi Osaka to serve as its brand ambassador in October 2019, and that she was also director of sports for Melco's Japanese resorts. [23] On October 29, Melco Resorts announced that it is investing $248 million to create the Melco Creative Exchange Fund, focusing on non-gaming hotel and hospitality projects. [25]
