IN BRIEF
MGM Mirage starts bond exchange offer
MGM Mirage is asking investors to swap nearly $500 million in debt maturing next year to give the company some financial breathing room.
The gaming company would issue the new 10 percent senior notes maturing in September 2016 for the 8.5 percent notes due September 2010, of which $782 million is outstanding.
Without the exchange, the company would face $1.2 billion in maturing notes next year and another $529.3 million due in 2011.
The company reported $12.4 billion in debt at the end of the second quarter ended June 30.
This is the second time this year the MGM Mirage has tried to alleviate its near-term debt commitments with CityCenter opening in December.
The company sold $2.7 billion in stock and debt in May. It also restructured some loans to remove the risk of bankruptcy.
"This announcement did not come as a surprise as management has been looking to reduce its near-term maturities and maintaining its focus on opening CityCenter later this year," Deutsche Bank gaming analyst Andrew Zarnett wrote in an investors note.
Luxe Lofts files for bankruptcy protection
Luxe Lofts, a stalled condominium project on West Flamingo Road, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday, joining other projects such as Mira Villa and Vantage Lofts on the list of bankrupt luxury condo developments in Las Vegas.
Frank Hamadani, managing member of Qualitect and developer of Luxe Lofts, estimated assets of $1 million to $10 million and estimated liabilities of $10 million to $50 million in the bankruptcy filing. Creditors were estimated at 100 to 199.
Construction of the 83-unit project started in 2006 and units were priced from the high $400,000s.
Oakview Building Consensus was general contractor for the $38 million project.
Arts center selects chief operating officer
The Smith Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday named Paul Beard chief operating officer.
In a statement, the center said Beard, a seasoned theater manager with more than 20 years of experience in the performing arts industry, will oversee the construction of the $470 million project. He will plan and direct key aspects of organizational operations and develop policies and programs to support the center's short and long-term goals.
The Smith Center is going up on a 61-acre parcel of city of Las Vegas land at Bonneville Avenue and Grand Central Parkway, across from the Clark County government center. Groundbreaking was in May; the center is projected to open in 2012.
Mandarin Oriental names signature eatery
Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas, a hotel going up as part of MGM Mirage's $8.5 billion CityCenter project, on Thursday said Twist, by three-star Michelin Chef Pierre Gagnaire, will be the hotel's signature restaurant.
In a statement, Mandarin Oriental said the restaurant will open in December on the hotel's 23rd floor and will be Gagnaire's first restaurant in the United States. The restaurant will seat 74 and will feature a menu that puts a modern spin on classic French cuisine, the statement said.
Adam D. Tihany designed the restaurant.
New test flight date set for Boeing's stalled 787
Boeing says its 787 aircraft will be ready for its first test flight by the end of this year and its initial delivery in the last three months of 2010, sending its shares higher as it gives some clarity to a program that has been delayed five times already.
Boeing originally scheduled the 787's first test flight for the fall of 2007. But production problems have forced the company to postpone trial flights of the next-generation passenger jet. The first delivery to Japan's All Nippon Airways Co. is now more than two years behind its original schedule.
HOUSTON
New details revealed in Stanford swindle case
The former finance chief for jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford said his boss created a business empire where blood oaths were taken to secure loyalty, bribes were paid from a secret Swiss bank account and investor profits were more fiction than financial genius.
New details about how Stanford allegedly bilked investors out of $7 billion were made public Thursday after James Davis, Stanford's former chief financial officer, became the first person to plead guilty in the case.
Davis pleaded guilty in Houston federal court to three counts: conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud; mail fraud; and conspiracy to obstruct a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.
The plea is part of a deal Davis, who has been helping prosecutors, made with the Justice Department in exchange for a possible reduced sentence.
WASHINGTON
Expect more failures from troubled banks
Today is Failure Friday, the point each week when federal regulators seize the latest round of most troubled banks.
Expect more bad news in the Fridays to come, even though the economy shows signs of improving.
U.S. banks lost a combined $3.7 billion in the second quarter, and the 81 failures so far this year have reduced the federal fund that insures deposits to its lowest level since 1993, when the fiasco in the savings and loan industry was drawing to a close.
Some analysts speculate that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will have to tap its $500 billion line of credit or, worse, seek taxpayer money to cover expected losses this year.
