Galaxy at a glance
Galaxy Entertainment Group is the gaming arm of Lui Che-woo’s business empire K Wah Group, a conglomerate that also includes construction, property and hotel assets.
Lui, born in the Guangdong province in China, founded the business in Hong Kong in 1955. The 88-year old has a net worth of $22 billion, according to Forbes.
Galaxy’s investment in Wynn Resorts would not be his group’s first exposure to the U.S. market.
K Wah has been developing standalone houses under the brand name of Cresleigh Homes in several states including California, Arizona, Texas and North Dakota.
The group also owns 17 hotels in the United States, including Marriott- and Hilton-branded properties in California and the Luma Hotel on Times Square.
could sink its stock price.
“Now that Wynn has backing from Galaxy, arguably the most prominent local operator that has a great relationship with governments, one could argue that the risk of (Wynn’s) license renew should be reduced,’’ Kim and Zhuang said.
Galaxy footprint
Galaxy operates three casinos on Macau and owns the largest undeveloped land bank on the Chinese gaming enclave. It is expanding its flagship, Galaxy Macau, by 3 million square feet.
The company is also looking at international expansion, including projects in the Philippines and Japan, according to its annual report published this week. Galaxy makes no mention of U.S. expansion plans in the report.
Analysts say the company has little interest in the U.S. gaming industry, which shows little growth compared with Asian markets.
“Ultimately, should this progress to an acquisition scenario, we think Galaxy is only interested in Macau and would therefore seek to concurrently sell the U.S. assets (Las Vegas and Boston),’’ Union Gaming analyst Grant Govertsen said in a note Thursday night.
Wynn Resort’s U.S. assets include two casinos on the Strip and one in Massachusetts that is due to open in June 2019.
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Contact Todd Prince at tprince@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0386. Follow @toddprincetv on Twitter.