During a second-quarter earnings call on August 10, Mohegan Gaming CEO Ray Pineault said the U.S. tribal authority still expects to open non-gaming amenities at its Inspire Entertainment Resort at Incheon, South Korea by the end of the year.
“There would have to be something very abnormal to prevent us from achieving that goal,” Pineault told analysts. He added that a recent typhoon that affected South Korea was “non-impactful” in terms of the project timetable.
Asked about the opening of the casino itself, Pineault acknowledged that some factors are “not in our control. As we’ve said from the get-go, we’ve got to open the hotel and the non-gaming amenities to get our rating on the hotel [in order to] to get the casino license.
“Obviously, we hope to make it as short a period of time as possible. We don’t control that…. We do have some target dates that we’ve been communicating with the [South Korean] agencies, and trying to narrow those down.”
Inspire Entertainment Resort President, Chen Si recently told GGRAsia he hopes the gaming floor will open in time for Chinese New Year 2024, which starts on February 10 of next year.
The multi-phase project will have three hotel towers with a total of 1,200 rooms; a 15,000-seat arena and convention space; dining, shopping and entertainment facilities; an indoor water park; an outdoor family park; and a foreigners-only casino. The operators say it will be “comparable in size and scale” to the group’s flagship casino complex, Mohegan Sun, in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Mohegan Gaming Chief Financial Officer Carol Anderson said on the call that the group’s total debt as of June 30 was US$3.1 billion, up US$218.7 million from the first quarter. “The increase primarily relates to the financing activities from the development of Mohegan Inspire, including additional draws under the project finance facility,” she said.
“As previously announced, we agreed to make an additional investment of up to KRW155 billion, or approximately US$119 million in the aggregate, to fund costs to complete Mohegan Inspire.”
Phase 1 of Inspire has been described as a US$1.6 billion project.
