Kirk Krkorian Is Building A City Center

[Aratta-Kingdom]

 

Las Vegas City Center is the latest big project by Kirk Krkorian.

 

http://www.citycenter.com/default.aspx

[MosJan]

good project but it as become annoying to be approached by marketers every moment wan in Vegas who tray to seal you a room in that city center

now that Kirg's Co. is managing most of LAs Vegas - he has the whole city for him self

[annannimusss]

I am happy for Kirk Krikorian. He is a Fresno boy like myself who has become a multi-billionaire who is helping his fatherland. I could not ask for more from him. He has also helped finance the Armenian old Age home here in Fresno, and a little known fact is that he is the one that gave a lot of money that helped to buy our church camp, that we are gonna be at next month for a retreat.

[Takoush]

I am happy for Kirk Krikorian. He is a Fresno boy like myself who has become a multi-billionaire who is helping his fatherland. I could not ask for more from him. He has also helped finance the Armenian old Age home here in Fresno, and a little known fact is that he is the one that gave a lot of money that helped to buy our church camp, that we are gonna be at next month for a retreat.

Yes this is true. He is a good Armenian patriotic man. Personally I never met him; but his first cousin was my father's friend. His cousin was also a wonderful man.

 

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

As Krkorian is about to finish the constraction of Vegas City Center, he gradually sells MGM-Mirage share to Dubai World.

 

 

 

 

 

Dubai World aims for 20% stake in MGM Mirage

 

by Shweta Jain

Last Update at 12:38:21 AM on December 30, 2007

 

 

 

Dubai World yesterday said it will continue to build its stake in

US-based MGM Mirage, the world's second largest entertainment and

leisure company, until it reaches the 20 per cent mark, a senior

executive said.

 

The conglomerate increased its stake in MGM to 6.5 per cent last week.

 

`Our intention is to increase our stake in MGM to 20 per cent

eventually. Now it can take one, two or even 20 years but there is a

strategy we are following to reach that mark,' Dubai World Chairman

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem told Emirates Business in an interview.

 

Without divulging details of the strategy, Bin Sulayem said: `We will

keep buying stakes in MGM whenever we feel there is an opportunity to

do so.'

 

He did not elaborate whether the acquisition would be through the

market or via issue of new shares.

 

Dubai World said on Friday it has bought an additional five million

shares of MGM Mirage for $242 million (Dh888m) (or $84.80 per share),

from billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's charity - Lincy Foundation

- according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange

Commission.

 

The holding company now owns 19.5 million shares of MGM, which owns

the Bellagio and Luxor hotels in Nevada, United States. Kerkorian is

the Chairman of Tracinda, which holds more than 51 per cent of MGM

Mirage's shares.

 

When asked what methods Dubai World would adopt in the future to

increase its stake in MGM, Bin Sulayem said: `We will always have

three choices for increasing our stake in MGM - buying from

institutions, from markets or directly from the company. It is

eventually up to our board which way to take and when. The board

members decide the final path. `For now, I will say that MGM Mirage

is good and a stable company and we are very comfortable with the

company.'

 

The hotel operator had about 299.4 million shares outstanding as of

September 30, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission

filing.

 

The move comes four months after Dubai World and MGM Mirage entered an

agreement in August to jointly develop MGM Mirage's $2.7 billion

CityCenter mega resort development on Las Vegas Strip, scheduled to

open by 2009.

 

As part of that deal, Dubai World purchased 14.2 million shares from

MGM, which included a 50 per cent stake in the CityCenter

developement.

 

The purchases would have given Dubai World a 9.5 per cent stake in MGM

but investors had turned down Dubai World's offer at that time, as

theoffer price was well below what holders could get on the open

market. The recent purchase, however, brings Dubai World closer to its

goal of buying as muchas 28.4 million shares.

 

MGM, Kerzner International Holdings and Istithmar Hotels had finalised

joint venture agreements in September to develop the

multi-billion-dollar Nevada resort.

[Ashot]

Kirk, is so crazy man, he is dominating to the end!!! He is after all a LEO i believe, lol !!!

Good going, certainly this will take his name higher on the worlds richest men list, probably to the 10th place or so, not that I know which place he takes right now!!!

[Ashot]

Let me fix myself

"Few investors have the capacity to confound convention and get away with it like Kirk Kerkorian. Last week, the legendary 88-year-old investor, said to be America's fourth richest man, was reported to have made $100 million in a little over a month on a highly counter-intuitive bet on General Motors shares."

[Ashot]

And I just found out that he is holding the 31st place in the world!!! so by 2010 he will be amongst the first 20 i think!!!

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Kirk, is so crazy man, he is dominating to the end!!!

 

He got a unique way of doing business. I wouldn't call him crazy, He's just different.

 

read the article below...

 

 

-----------------------------------------

 

 

 

 

Kerkorian's Tracinda to Buy 35% Delta Petroleum Stake

By Joe Carroll and Jim Polson

 

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. agreed to buy a

35 percent stake in Delta Petroleum Corp. for $684 million in a deal

that will help the U.S. oil and gas producer accelerate drilling.

 

Delta agreed to sell Tracinda 36 million shares at $19 each, a 23

percent premium to its Dec. 28 closing price, according to a statement

today by the Denver-based oil company.

 

Tracinda, which will get the right to nominate as much as a third of

Delta's board, made the deal a month after withdrawing a tender offer

for 16 percent of refiner Tesoro Corp. Delta's price-to-book-ratio, or

share price divided by book value, is 32 percent below the average for

its peer group, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Before today,

Delta had lost almost half its market value since the end of November

2006.

 

``The million-dollar question is, what does Kerkorian see that the

rest of Wall Street doesn't?'' David Tameron, an analyst at Wachovia

Capital Markets LLC in Denver, said in a telephone interview. ``Before

today, it was suspected Delta was going to be forced to do some kind

of equity offering or sell some assets to fund drilling, or else cut

its 2008 budget.''

 

Delta rose $3.34, or 22 percent, to $18.85 on the Nasdaq Stock

Market. The gain was Delta's biggest since October 2002.

 

Exploration Plans

 

Delta plans to speed up drilling in the Paradox Basin in Utah and the

Piceance Basin in Colorado, part of a region forecast by the

U.S. Energy Department to become the largest domestic source of

natural gas.

 

New pipelines connecting Rocky Mountain gas fields to consuming

markets will boost demand for Delta's output, Chief Executive Officer

Roger Parker said today on a conference call with investors.

 

Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch & Co. advised Delta, which has posted

losses in five straight quarters, on the transaction. Talks with

Tracinda began about a month ago. Parker, who is also chairman, said

he never considered selling the entire company. The agreement includes

a $5 million breakup fee. Additional equity may be used to fund

drilling and acquisitions, Delta said. The agreement, which allows

Delta to use the cash without restrictions from Tracinda, will be

submitted to shareholders for approval in February. The company's

stock ticker is DPTR.

 

First Refusal

 

``More important than the premium, in our opinion, is that DPTR

financing concerns for the next few years are removed,'' Tameron said

in a note to clients. ``This removes the funding overhang and removes

any concern about its debt coverage capability.''

 

Delta can't issue new stock without first offering to sell Tracinda

enough shares to maintain its stake in the company, according to the

agreement, which was submitted today as part of a public filing on the

deal. Tracinda keeps that right as long as its interest in Delta

doesn't fall below 10 percent. Delta reported reserves equivalent to

302 billion cubic feet of gas at the end of 2006 and has said

additional drilling may enable it to claim 4.28 trillion cubic feet of

gas equivalent. Its 2007 drilling budget was $250 million.

 

In the statement by Delta, Tracinda said it was attracted to the

company by its strong asset base and growth potential. Tom Johnson, a

spokesman for Tracinda, declined to comment further on the firm's

interest in Delta.

 

Energy Push

 

``Clearly, Tracinda wants to make investments in energy and here it

comes,'' said Roger Read, an analyst at Natixis Bleichroeder in

Houston.

 

Kerkorian is paying about $4.49 per thousand cubic feet of proved

reserves, according to Wachovia's Tameron, who said investment risks

include declining gas prices and environmental opposition to expanded

drilling in the Rockies. He said Delta wouldn't have been able to

fund its $250 million capital budget for 2008 from cash flow, which

will total about $64 million.

 

``Certainly, this means we will not be needing to look at asset

sales,'' Parker said on the conference call.

 

Delta spent $438 million acquiring reserves and exploration prospects

in the past eight years. Parker said the 10-member board will be

expanded to accommodate Kerkorian's nominees.

 

Kerkorian, 90, was ranked as the seventh-richest American by Forbes

magazine with an estimated net worth of $18 billion. He made much of

his fortune from investments in movie studios, hotels, casinos and

automakers.

 

Tesoro Offer

 

Tracinda withdrew its $1.4 billion tender offer for Tesoro stock after

the San Antonio-based refiner adopted a shareholder- rights plan. The

plan was designed to block potential acquirers from gaining control of

Tesoro without paying a premium for all of its shares.

 

The rights plan ``inhibits value for all Tesoro shareholders by, among

other things, restricting the ability of shareholders to vote, sell or

acquire Tesoro shares freely without fear of triggering the draconian

provisions of the rights plan,'' Tracinda said in a Nov. 27 statement.

 

Kerkorian's holdings include a stake in Las Vegas casino operator MGM

Mirage, which he founded in 1986. His investments in Chrysler yielded

a $2.7 billion profit when Daimler-Benz AG acquired the automaker in

1998. His bid last year to force General Motors Corp. into an alliance

with Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. failed.

Edited January 2, 2008 by Aratta-Kingdom

[Ashot]

I ment to say crazy in a good way, he is just going all the way, even his age does not bother him to get the business done!!! which is good, I look up to the man, he is just seriously too good!!!

[AVO]

Are there any books written about him?

[Ashot]

Are there any books written about him?

there should be, I heard some poeple have read it!!!

[AVO]

mi ban gta

[Ashot]

mi ban gta

isk ira b-date mi tegh grvuma, chem nkatel...

[AVO]

Hunisi 6 1917

[Ashot]

Hunisi 6 1917

thanks!

[Aratta-Kingdom]

How Kerkorian Won Wynn's Mirage

 

By CHRISTINA BINKLEY

March 5, 2008

On Valentine's Day in 2000, billionaire Kirk Kerkorian opened his newspaper and smelled blood. A column in The Wall Street Journal began like this:

 

"When Steve Wynn, chairman and chief executive officer of Mirage Resorts, held his first investor conference call in July, it went badly. 'I was surprised,' Mr. Wynn says of the analysts who follow Mirage. 'They were dumber than I thought.' "

 

Mr. Wynn was frustrated with critics of his lavish spending. A casino visionary who is slowly going blind, he is largely responsible for the modern, luxurious tourist mecca that Sin City has become since he built the Mirage casino in 1989. Often called the "King of Vegas," he had recently spent tens of millions of dollars buying Impressionist art for his latest creation at the time, Bellagio. But his spending -- along with troubles at a Biloxi, Miss., casino -- was worrying Wall Street that year: Mirage's stock had plummeted from around $25 a share to a low of $10.625.

 

Mr. Kerkorian, the octogenarian investor who controlled MGM Grand Inc., believed his rival's comments revealed vulnerability. He located his lawyer, Gary Jacobs, on vacation in Aurangabad, India, and raised a subject that he had dreamed about for years: a takeover of Mirage.

 

"The stars were aligned perfectly," says a person who was involved.

 

Mr. Jacobs suggested sending Mr. Wynn a bear-hug letter -- so-called because its grip is suffocating. Mr. Wynn would receive a polite letter, signed by MGM Grand's chairman, Terry Lanni, offering to buy Mirage Resorts for $17 a share, and the letter would be released publicly.

 

Donald Trump once ignored a verbal offer for his troubled casino company from Tom Barrack, chairman of Colony Capital LLC. Mr. Barrack, a friend of Mr. Trump, never publicized the offer or put it in writing. That was friendly.

 

Releasing a letter publicly wouldn't be so friendly. It would force Mr. Wynn to come up with a plan to create as much value for shareholders as Mr. Kerkorian's offer or face years of lawsuits.

 

After a week of strategizing, Mr. Kerkorian called Mr. Wynn at home. This is the way Mr. Wynn describes their conversation:

 

Kerkorian: "I got a new idea. How about if I buy Mirage -- the whole thing -- for stock, cash, anything?"

 

Wynn: "Are you kidding?"

 

Kerkorian: "If you don't want to do it, I'll forget about it.

 

"I wanna send you a letter."

 

Wynn: "If you send me a letter, I have to respond through the board."

 

Kerkorian: "Oh. Well, Terry sent a letter. I didn't want to, but he did it."

 

Then Mr. Kerkorian mentioned his price: $17 a share.

 

Mr. Wynn laughed. He says Mr. Kerkorian agreed that the price was low.

 

After the call was over, Mr. Wynn told his wife, Elaine, about it. "What do you want to do?" she says she asked. He responded, "I want to sell."

 

The letter arrived the next day. Mr. Kerkorian's team also put it out over the newswires and notified the Securities and Exchange Commission. This public move had one aim -- to force Mr. Wynn's hand, Mr. Jacobs says.

 

Smelling a high-profile takeover battle, several Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bankers, including one named Dino Fusco, flew to Las Vegas that morning, proposing to represent Mirage. When he heard the amount of their fee, Mr. Wynn asked that the bankers be ushered into his office.

 

"Let me get this straight," Mr. Wynn shouted, his face reddening. "Just so I understand. So I get a letter from Kirk Kerkorian. So far, he's spent 33 cents. And you want to charge me $25 million to respond?"

 

Mr. Wynn's ranting excited his precision-trained guard dogs. Perceiving a threat to their master, the German shepherds commenced to case the room for danger. One dog shoved his nose into Mr. Fusco's crotch in an attack position. The dog stayed that way, staring at the investment banker, for the full length of Wynn's tirade. "I was petrified," Fusco recalls. "I'm thinking, 'This job isn't worth this.' "

 

Mr. Wynn's tantrum proved to be worth $10 million. Goldman reduced its fee to $15 million.

 

At a Mirage board meeting on Feb. 29, the directors gave Mr. Wynn and his top executives lucrative new employment terms. These contracts seemed to obsess Mr. Wynn, in particular their effect on his Las Vegas home at Shadow Creek, the art that he had collected, and the company's New York apartment and Gulfstream III jet, according to several people at MGM Grand who learned details of the board's discussions during subsequent negotiations. "More time was spent on that than some of the substantive corporate issues," says Jim Murren, then MGM's president and chief financial officer.

 

Soon afterward, Messrs. Wynn and Kerkorian agreed to meet privately at Bellagio to discuss price. Mr. Kerkorian arrived through Mr. Wynn's private backdoor. Mr. Wynn admired the way Mr. Kerkorian looked in his powder-blue slacks and a cream-and-blue checked sport coat. "He looked like a model," Mr. Wynn says.

 

The two moguls sat on chairs in an alcove of Mr. Wynn's office. Knowing his rival was deaf in one ear, Mr. Wynn took care to sit on the side of Mr. Kerkorian's good ear. He ordered them each a cup of coconut sorbet from a shop in the casino. "I only want a little bit, Stevie," Mr. Kerkorian said.

 

Mr. Murren had told Mr. Kerkorian that Mirage Resorts was worth as much as $22 or $23 a share to MGM Grand. But Mr. Kerkorian didn't let on. He told Mr. Wynn he could go as high as $19. When Mr. Wynn said he wanted $21, Mr. Kerkorian grimaced.

 

 

Mr. Wynn says he also informed Mr. Kerkorian that he intended to start work on a new casino almost immediately and that he wanted to put out the press release announcing the deal -- an honor normally accorded the acquirer. Nonetheless, Mr. Kerkorian reached his hand across to Mr. Wynn, and they shook on it.

 

"He was like 18 years old again," Mr. Wynn says. "He started eating his sorbet real fast."

 

When Mr. Kerkorian returned to the MGM Grand executive offices, "I don't think his feet were on the ground," says Mr. Murren. "You could imagine him with a pair of boxing shorts on."

 

Mr. Kerkorian was electric. He stood up. He slammed his hand on the table. "This is the opportunity of a lifetime, gentlemen!" he announced.

 

As Mr. Kerkorian's team drew up legal papers, an MGM attorney suggested barring Mr. Wynn from opening another casino for a period of time. "Absolutely not," Mr. Kerkorian responded, according to a witness. "The best thing that could happen to us is that Steve comes back and builds a place across the street."

 

When the $6.4 billion deal was announced, headlines from Japan's Yomiuri Shimbum to the Washington Post heralded the end of an era. The London Independent announced: "The King Is Dead."

 

Weeks later, at the 27th and final annual meeting of Mirage Resorts, a shareholder asked Mr. Wynn if there had been an alternative to selling. "As much as I'd have loved to buy back the company myself or buy a bigger share of it, it's not that easy to do," Mr. Wynn answered. "So I found myself a bit trapped."

 

Then he hinted at the truth: that he was already drawing up plans for his own comeback. "I'm very upbeat about what comes next," he said. "But I don't think I'm going to be a public-markets man," he added. "How can we ever cater to a 60-day time frame for investors when we're building resorts for the ages?"

 

The closing dinner for Mirage -- an event at which corporate executives and bankers congratulate themselves on a deal -- was festive. Several Goldman bankers joked that "of course" they did the deal at $21 a share. It's Las Vegas. Blackjack.

 

And MGM Grand got stuck with the $15 million Goldman Sachs bill, though Mr. Murren, who had done Mr. Kerkorian's banking work himself, called the fee "highway robbery."

 

* * *

So, was it friendly or unfriendly?

 

This is a question of great importance to Steve Wynn even after he has built his gambling kingdom anew.

 

His answer: He wanted to sell Mirage Resorts. "People thought it was a hostile because of that letter," he says during a full-out rant in his office. The bear-hug letter was a "mistake" on Mr. Kerkorian's part, he adds. It was a move of naïveté, not cunning.

 

"I don't think that Kirk understood what that letter meant," says Mr. Wynn. "Cause when I said I'd have to take it to my board, he said, 'Oh.' And it was a real 'Oh!' "

 

"So Kirk supposedly didn't understand what he was doing?" says Jim Murren. "That's such a crock."

 

Hostile. Friendly. Call it what you like. Mr. Wynn's eggs were moved to Mr. Kerkorian's nest.

 

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Are there any books written about him?

 

"Winner Takes All: Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman, and the Race to Own Las Vegas" (Hyperion, 320 pages, $25.95), by Christina Binkley: As a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who covered Las Vegas, Christina Binkley had an excellent perch as the city's most powerful men triggered an epic wave of dealmaking.

 

 

 

As the casino industry consolidated, Binkley chronicled Kirk Kerkorian's takeover of Steve Wynn's Mirage Resorts, creating a company called MGM Mirage, today the biggest property owner on the Las Vegas Strip.

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../e093240S47.DTL

 

 

 

 

 

[StverDJ]

Armenian business genius

 

what more can you say?

[Aratta-Kingdom]

KERKORIAN 'FASCINATED WITH MAKING DEALS'

By John Gallagher

 

Detroit Free Press, MI

April 28 2008

 

Del.icio.us Facebook Digg Reddit Newsvine What's this?

 

Kirk Kerkorian's latest bid for a hefty stake in an American automaker

has some people asking why the 90-year-old Las Vegas dealmaker cares

so much about Detroit metal.

 

Since the reclusive billionaire rarely does interviews, his biography

will have to provide any clues.

 

That personal history shows strong evidence that, once intrigued by

an idea, Kerkorian pursues it relentlessly.

 

Whatever he fancies, Kerkorian certainly has the money to go for

it. Forbes Magazines estimates Kerkorian's fortune at $18 billion,

making him the seventh-wealthiest American.

 

The son of Armenian immigrants who ran a produce business in Fresno,

Calif., Kerkorian quit school as a teenager to go to work. He spent

a year in the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, served

as a military pilot during World War II, and after the war ran a

small air-charter service to ferry gamblers between Los Angeles and

Las Vegas.

 

Kerkorian paid $60,000 for the charter service in 1947, when he was

30. In 1968, he sold it to Trans-america Corp. for a little over $100

million. It was his first fortune, and a banker friend, Walter Sharp,

said much later the transaction transformed Kerkorian.

 

"Kirk realized then that everything was in the timing," Sharp said

in 1995. "He became fascinated with the idea of making deals."

 

And deals there were. For a man so intensely private, he showed a

remarkable taste for splashy investments, mostly in Las Vegas. With

the proceeds of his airline sale, he acquired the Flamingo hotel there

in 1967. It was just the first of several casino-hotels Kerkorian

would buy, sell or build in the decades since.

 

Movies also have held a lure. Kerkorian bought the MGM film studio

three times between 1970 and 1996, once selling it to mogul Ted Turner

and buying it back again in a matter of months.

 

It was a chance encounter with Lee Iacocca that sparked Kerkorian's

interest in Detroit. Meeting the then-automotive executive at a

Florida racetrack, Kerkorian agreed in 1990 to invest in Chrysler,

whose finances were shaky again because of slumping sales.

 

What followed was a tumultuous relationship with Chrysler that ended

in a nasty lawsuit. Years later, he made a run at General Motors that

ended in disappointment.