HONG KONG: Wynn Macau Ltd, the Stephen Wynn-led casino company planning to raise as much as HK$12.6 billion ($1.63 billion) in a Hong Kong initial public offering, plans to close the institutional order book a day early, said three people familiar with the sale.

The order book will close on September 29 because the offer to institutions is oversubscribed, the sources said, declining to give further details or be identified because the information isn't public.

The Macao unit of Wynn Resorts Ltd previously told fund managers that they could subscribe to shares through September 30, they added, reporting that final pricing for the IPO is expected October 1. Sukyi Yau at Citigate Dewe Rogerson, a public relations firm retained by Wynn in Hong Kong, declined to comment.

Las Vegas-based Wynn is selling part of its Macao unit, which generated 57 percent of the group's second-quarter revenue, as it grapples with declining income at home. Wynn's is tapping optimism that Beijing will make it easier for mainland residents to travel to Macao, the world's biggest gaming hub, after a rally that has seen Hong Kong shares of Macao casino operators Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd, SJM Holdings Ltd and Melco International Development Ltd more than double this year.

Beijing has relaxed travel curbs to Macao for residents of the southern province of Guangdong, Wynn said at a press conference in Hong Kong yesterday.

Earnings at Wynn Resorts have fallen for the past two years as a global economic slowdown hurt travel and spending at the company's Las Vegas casinos and hotels. In contrast, net income at Wynn's Macao operations rose 48 percent to HK$2.04 billion last year, the draft prospectus said, as gambling revenue in the only Chinese region where casinos are legal climbed.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley and UBS AG are managing the sale. Marie Cheung, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for JPMorgan; Noel Cheung, a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman in the city and Chris Cockerill, a spokesman for UBS in Hong Kong declined to comment.

Bloomberg News

(HK Edition 09/25/2009 page3)