Macau Rejects SJM Request For Cotai Sites 7,8; Likely To Get Other Land 1st Quarter - Source

The Macau government has rejected SJM Holdings Ltd.'s (0880.HK) application for the same land Sands China Ltd. (1928.HK) was denied earlier this month, saying that the operator's plans to build a casino on Sites 7 and 8 would require a public tender, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

SJM, which is controlled by gambling mogul Stanley Ho, is likely to secure land rights for another plot of land on Cotai in the first quarter of 2011, the person said.

The site is next to the Macau Dome and is also next to land where a company controlled by Angela Leong, the fourth wife of Ho and an executive director of SJM, said it will invest MOP10.4 billion (US$1.3 billion) in a family-oriented theme park and hotel resort that doesn't have a casino. SJM is in talks with Leong to connect the properties and share operating facilities, the person said.

The first-quarter timeline represents a delay from SJM Chief Executive Ambrose So's earlier forecast. He told Dow Jones Newswires in September that land rights for planned casino projects in Cotai would likely be granted to SJM, Wynn Macau Ltd. (1128.HK) and MGM Macau by the end of 2010.

-By Kate O'Keeffe, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; [e-mail]