Wynn Resorts has announced that it has completed the financing for Wynn Al Marjan Island, obtaining a $2.4 billion construction facility with a global syndicate of lenders.
The company noted in a Thursday release that ‘this landmark transaction represents the largest hospitality financing transaction in the history of the United Arab Emirates’.
The loan facility carries a seven year term ‘at a competitive market interest rate’ and has also been structured as a delayed draw facility ‘which provides significant financial flexibility to the joint venture partners’.
The loan was made available to Wynn Al Marjan Island FZ-LLC, a subsidiary of the joint venture in which Wynn holds 40 percent, it is denominated in a combination of AED and USD currencies, ‘reflecting the bulk of the expected development expenditures to be incurred in AED’.
The company further indicates that Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC and Deutsche Bank AGB acted as Joint Coordinators of the financing, while First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, Emirate NBD Capital Limited and The National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah acted as Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers, Bookrunners and Underwriters. Sumimoto Mitsui Banking Corporation DIFC Branch, Dubai acted as Lead Arrangers, while First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC acts as Agent and Security Agent for the lenders.
The group indicates that it is still expecting the 1,542-room property to open in 2027, being the first integrated resort in the UAE, located 50 minutes from Dubai International Airport.
The project is expected to cost a total of $5.1 billion, with expectations by some analysts that it could transform Ras Al Khaimah to the fourth major gaming market worldwide.
Currently the construction team is completing one floor per week, with aims for a topping off in December of this year. Some 64 percent of the structural concrete has been completed up to the 34th floor of the main resort tower, with the resort tower growing 140 feet in the past 100 days, according to Wynn.
Some 1,226 guest rooms in the tower structure have been completed, or 80 percent of the total, while more than 20 percent of the exterior façade window glazing has been completed. Fit out is underway for 1,121 rooms, while in the low-rise segment of the building, concrete and steel structures are a combined 70 percent complete.
Wynn Resorts is developing the project in partnership with Marjan and RAK Hospitality Holding, while Wynn Design and Development is overseeing all facets of the project’s design and construction.
