Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- MGM Mirage and Macau partner Pansy Ho plan to expand their casino and begin inspecting sites for potential resorts as they mull an initial public offering.

The Macau venture is “under-represented” in the market and is “working on plans” to finish the 70,000 square feet of its casino’s second floor, MGM Mirage Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Jim Murren said in a phone interview. MGM Grand Macau intends to look at sites in the Chinese city to build resorts, he said.

MGM Mirage follows Las Vegas-based rivals Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Las Vegas Sands Corp. in seeking to raise funds from selling stakes in their operations in Macau, where gambling revenue is recovering. Murren’s reiteration of plans to sell shares comes a day after a report that China tightened curbs on citizens’ travel to Macau, the only Chinese region where casinos are legal.

“In the short term, too many Macau plays may not be too good because of the unclear picture” surrounding travel policy, John Koh, who helps manage $1.1 billion at MEAG Hong Kong Ltd., said in a phone interview today.

Wynn Macau Ltd., controlled by Steve Wynn, raised HK$14.5 billion ($1.87 billion) in Hong Kong’s second- biggest offering this year and billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands said in August its Macau unit had applied for a Hong Kong IPO. Sands may raise at least $2 billion in the offer, company President Michael Leven said July 8.

Las Vegas

Murren, who runs the biggest casino owner on the Las Vegas Strip, said business trends at home are “firming” and will improve more from April 2010.

“That improvement will accelerate once we get to the second quarter of next year,” Murren said. “That’s when convention business starts to really turn again.”

MGM Mirage plans to reduce its debt to $10 billion from more than $12 billion within five years as cash flow increases, Murren said.

The company plans to renew its $5.6 billion bank facility by June 2010, he said. Murren said he expects the bank facility to be redone with new terms for “the usual” five-year period.

Macau Travel

Residents from China’s Guangdong province had been allowed to visit neighboring Macau once a month, until officials recently cut visas to once every two months, the formal policy, Macao Daily reported yesterday, citing an unidentified person from the immigration department.

Two people who answered an enquiry hotline at Guangdong province’s exit and entry administration told Bloomberg News yesterday that Guangdong residents can visit Macau once every two months, a policy that hasn’t changed since last year. The people, who provided employee identification numbers, declined to give their names.

MGM Macau is preparing legally and financially for an initial public offering “if that’s what the partners choose to do,” Murren said.

“Both partners have discussed it, and we believe it’s a very viable and attractive option,” Murren said. “We haven’t decided to do it yet, but there’s been a very positive disposition towards it from both partners.”

Revenue Increase

Casino revenue in Macau rose 17 percent on an annual basis to a record in August even as earnings on the Las Vegas Strip fell 9 percent. Macau’s growth in September was 53 percent from a year earlier, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported Oct. 1.

The jump in casino revenue and an increase in hotel occupancy in Macau may have raised concerns that gambling-table numbers would repeat the surge that followed the end of billionaire Stanley Ho’s monopoly in 2002.

Macau is reviewing the number of gambling tables in the city, according to a Portuguese-language statement posted on the government Web site Oct. 12, citing Francis Tam, secretary for economics and finance. The city is also drafting two laws, one to ban slot machines from residential areas and another to raise the age for customers and staff at casinos to 21 from 18.

“The government has taken a very thoughtful approach to this, and obviously don’t have all the answers yet as things are growing and changing so rapidly,” Murren said.

Macau’s hotel occupancy rate surged to 80.4 percent in August, the highest since December 2007.

“I haven’t learned anything that would suggest that thoughtful development over many years is not possible there,” Murren said. “The clear objective of the joint venture is to grow beyond the existing resort,” he added.

To contact the reporters on this story: Beth Jinks in New York at bjinks1@bloomberg.net; Chia-Peck Wong in Hong Kong at cpwong@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 16, 2009 11:55 EDT