Wynn Resorts investors have been warming themselves quite nicely by the billions of dollars of growth irons the company has in the fire. But they have to be wondering now how many of those will be able to withstand the heat of the accusations of pervasive sexual misconduct swirling around legendary founder, Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn.
Wynn vehemently denies those allegations, which came to light in an explosive January 26 report by The Wall Street Journal, and his board of directors has pivoted swiftly into damage control mode.
That hasn’t stopped the scandal from shearing off some $3 billion in value from the company’s shares (Nasdaq: WYNN), while Wynn himself has had to quit his high-profile job as finance chair of the Republican National Committee and now faces investigations by gaming regulators in Nevada, where he is developing two new luxury hotels with an expensive array of attractions, and Massachusetts, where a multibillion-dollar Wynn casino hotel is slated to debut outside Boston next summer.
Fortunately for more stalwart investors, in the near term at least, the company stands to have an easier ride of it in the market where it makes most of its money.
In Macau, the booming Chinese casino enclave where Wynn derives 60 percent of its revenues from three lavish gambling resorts, its Hong Kong-listed Wynn Macau subsidiary pledged to “fully cooperate with any requests” from authorities, and it’s reported that management met last Monday with officials from the local government’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
The substance of that meeting was not disclosed, and while Wynn Macau’s license is up for renewal in 2022
