Hong Kong businesswoman Pansy Ho, the partner of MGM Resorts International in Macau, sold almost 2.45 million shares in the casino company, according to filings with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Ho is executive director of Hong Kong-listed MGM China Holdings, which operates the MGM Macau and MGM Cotai resorts. The stock sales, first reported by Seeking Alpha and GGRAsia, netted Ho $79 million.
The transactions, which took place between Nov. 26 and Dec. 12, reportedly reduced her ownership stake in MGM Resorts from 2.2% down to 1.78%. The average price per share for the sale was $32.12.
In early November, Ho sold 4.5 million shares in MGM Resorts, for $140.2 million.
According to GGRAsia, Ho told reporters after the early November stock sale she was “restructuring of my own financial portfolio. But this is only representing a very small proportion of the holdings that I have (in MGM Resorts). I will continue to hold on to the remaining (shares).”
Pansy Ho is the daughter of former Macau casino kingpin Stanley Ho. He is the founder and Chairman of SJM Holdings, which owns nineteen casinos in Macau including the Grand Lisboa.
Her relationship with MGM Resorts became an issue in New Jersey in 2009. At the time, MGM Resorts was a 50% owner of Borgata in Atlantic City, which was operated by Boyd Gaming Corp., which owned the other 50% stake.
International law enforcement authorities have alleged the 98-year-old Stanley Ho, a billionaire who controlled Macau casino market before the then-Portuguese colony became a special administrate region of China, had ties to Chinese organized crime triads.
Stanley Ho was awarded a Macau casino concession in 2002 and gave his sub-concession to Pansy Ho, who announced a partnership with MGM. The MGM Macau opened in 2007.
In 2010, MGM Resorts placed its Atlantic City holdings into a trust and was seeking to sell the half-interest in Borgata. A year earlier, New Jersey casino authorities ruled that Pansy Ho was unsuitable as a business partner because of ties to her father. Nevada gaming regulators previously found Pansy Ho was suitable.
#newsroom – Pansy Ho reduces stake in MGM Resorts, sells $79 million in stock. –@howardstutz, CDC Gaming. https://t.co/KKGUoGo71U @MGMResortsIntl #CDCgaming
— CDC Gaming (@CDCNewswire) December 18, 2019
The company attempted to sell its half-ownership in Borgata until 2014, when Ho reduced her holdings in MGM Macau and the New Jersey Casino Control Commission reversed a ruling that would have required MGM to sell its assets in the state.
In 2016, MGM Resorts acquired Boyd’s 50% stake in Borgata and is now the owner-operator of the Atlantic City resort. That same year, Pansy Ho acquired a large stake in MGM Resorts as part of a 2016 deal with the company, which increased its stake in MGM China to 56%. Pansy Ho reduced her stake to 22%.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
