Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers will lead the new round of financing for the Venetian project that could run as high as US$900 million (HK$7.02 billion) in loans and bond sales.

The search for funding comes just after the finance arm of Venetian Macau paid off US$120 million in bonds it had sold two years ago to finance construction of the popular Macau Sands casino, which Adelson opened in May of last year and paid for itself in record time on the back of strong gambling revenue. The buyback cost the company US$121.9 million, including accrued interest due bondholders.

The 2003 bond sale was also run by Goldman Sachs with a syndicate that included two local banks in Macau and Scotia Capital, the investment banking arm of Canadian Bank of Nova Scotia. The bonds yielded 4 percent, bankers said.

The Venetian is the most expensive casino project to date in Macau, with a total projected cost of US$1.8 billion. The resort is modeled after Adelson's successful Venetian Las Vegas, a faux rendering of the fabled Italian trading city complete with canals and gondoliers. It will also house luxury shopping malls and a classical art museum.

When it opens, the hotel will contain 1,500 suites while the casino will house 585 gaming tables with 5,000 slot machines. A convention center, shopping complex and theaters are also planned. The company had spent US$48.6 million in capital expenditure on Macau projects through the end of March 2005, according to the company's most recent regulatory filling in the United States.

At the same time, Wynn Macau will pay an interest margin of 3 percent above the London interbank offered rate on the US$345 million loan it is seeking, bankers familiar with the situation said.

On this latest round of financing, a slew of major multinational investment banks such as Calyon Corporate & Investment Bank, HSBC, BNP Paribas - in addition to the original syndicate of banks from the first loan in September - are likely to join in the syndication, market sources said. Big name banks like these shied away from previous opportunities to fund Macau casino projects but are more interested this time around.

``The Sands is booming, MGM has broken ground and Singapore is coming on,'' a banker said. ``Everyone wants to get smart on how to do these deals.''

And now that several casinos have successfully financed projects, banks are becoming more comfortable with the idea of contributing funds. That's a big change from last year when lead arrangers Societe General and Deutsche Bank had to search high and low to find syndicate banks not scared off by the greenfield nature of financing a Macau casino. At that time, when Wynn Macau was seeking an initial US$397 million loan, the two banks, who are also leading the current deal, brought in two local Macau banks at the behest of the Macau government along with Allied Irish Bank, Korea First Bank, Hong Kong-based Canadian Eastern Finance, Japan's Aozora Bank, Germany's WestLB as well as Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Macau).

The difficulty in arranging financing was one factor behind the higher 3.5 percent interest margin Wynn Macau had to pay then.

The new phase of Wynn Macau will include 150 tables, 500 slot machines, a sports betting area, two restaurants and a theater. Construction is scheduled to begin in the third quarter at a total cost of US$345 million, bringing Wynn's total investment in Macau to US$1.05 billion. Phase I, scheduled to open in autumn at a cost of US$704 million, will contain 600 hotel rooms, 200 gaming tables, 350 slot machines and seven restaurants.tim.leemaster@singtaonewscorp.com