* Melco Crown sees Macau gaming resuming growth by year end
* Aims to double market share with opening of $2 bln resort
* Has no plans to expand for next 12-18 months
By Sui-Lee Wee and Doug Young
MACAU, June 1 (Reuters) -Casino operator Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd on Monday said it is aiming to double its Macau market share within a year, as it opened a $2.1 billion casino and forecast the market would resume growing by the end of 2009.
Melco Crown, which had an overall market share of about 14 percent of Macau's gaming market in 2008 through its Altira resort, opened its City of Dreams mega-casino resort on the Cotai Strip, a dusty strip of reclaimed land in Macau that is lauded as Asia's answer to Las Vegas' neon alley.
"The darkest days for Macau are probably over," Lawrence Ho, chief executive of Melco Crown, a joint venture between Hong Kong-listed Melco International Development Ltd. and Australia's Crown Ltd, told Reuters in an interview. "Before the end of the year, we'll see flat or tiny growth."
"If we don't double what we have with Altira, we'll be disappointed," Ho said, referring to the company's market share, and adding that he hoped it would be achieved within a year.
Melco Crown has expanded its business even as other competitors, including Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Galaxy Entertainment Group, have delayed projects in Macau due to financing problems and a slowdown in the sector.
Gaming revenues in Macau have been falling since the fourth quarter of last year, after Beijing tightened its restrictions on mainland tourists and the economic downturn kept gamblers away.
Ho, the 32-year-old son of Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho, said Melco Crown had no plans to expand in other markets within the next 12 to 18 months, adding that he hoped to remain focused on the Asia market, and had no interest in going to the United States, the world's biggest gaming market.
Ho now holds roughly 35 percent of Melco Crown, a company he founded with Australian billionaire James Packer, son of late media tycoon Kerry Packer.
The pair of young casino magnates were both on hand for a splashy casino opening that featured a guitar-smashing spectacle outside the new Hard Rock Hotel, and costumed actors walking around with cubes of water on their heads.
Melco Crown's Nasdaq-listed shares have nearly doubled in value so far this year and hit a near nine-month high last Thursday.
Melco Crown's stellar performance is part of a broad-based rally in shares of other Macau gaming companies, which have soared on hopes of a recovery in the world's biggest gambling market.
MACAU TRANSFORMATION
The new casino is a stone's throw from Las Vegas Sands' palatial 3,000-room Venetian Macau, the world's largest casino resort, which opened just a year ago.
The City of Dreams is targeting a similar level of visitors as the Venetian, which now attracts 50,000 to 70,000 visitors per day, said Greg Hawkins, the president of the casino resort.
Ho said he hoped the City of Dreams would help transform Macau, which mostly attracts day-trippers from mainland China and Hong Kong, into a destination where gamblers would stay for longer periods and come from more distant locations.
Analysts and industry executives are watching to see if the City of Dreams will cannibalise gaming revenues in Macau, which has 31 casinos. Three more are expected to open by 2010.
But analysts such as CLSA's Aaron Fischer are optimistic.
"Clearly the Venetian will lose some market share, most companies do in the beginning when new casinos open," Fischer said.
"But the City of Dreams will be the tipping point for Cotai," he said. "Cotai will start attracting more visits and that means more revenue being shared among the operators. We think it's going to be net positive for the Venetian."
The opening phase of the City of Dreams has a 420,000 square foot casino, with 520 gaming tables and two hotels -- the Crown Towers and Hard Rock Hotel -- which have about 300 rooms each, and a dome-shaped theatre.
The third hotel, the Grand Hyatt Macau, has about 800 rooms and is set to be completed by October.
Ho hopes the City of Dreams will expand Melco Crown's mass-market segment, which commands higher margins because the company would not have to fork out gaming commissions to "junket" operators - middle-man operations that bring in high rolling gamblers.
(Editing by Doug Young and Chris Lewis)