The money in Macau
Having beaten Vegas in gambling revenues, this former colony's eyeing the jewelry biz

April 15, 2008

The Cotai Strip Convention and Exhibition Center at the Venetian Macao was the setting for the first-ever Macau Jewellery and Watch Fair, organized by CMP in mid January.

The world's largest flawless diamond, a 218.08-carat cushion-cut D-IF stone named "The Star of Stanley Ho," looked too big and too crystalline to be real. But there it was behind protective glass and flanked by armed guards at the Grand Lisboa, the new flagship of Ho's casino empire in the small island territory of Macau.

Despite the stone's outrageous size and clarity, the agitated crowds flocking to the property didn't linger long enough to contemplate its authenticity (in any event, it wasn't up for debate). They'd come from the mainland by bus or from Hong Kong by ferry (also conveniently owned by Ho), mostly Chinese men anxious to hit the baccarat tables. In fact, so many of them are descending on this former Portuguese enclave on the western lip of the Pearl River Delta that gambling revenues from local casinos have already exceeded the take on the Las Vegas Strip and are on the verge of surpassing all of Nevada.

It's boom time in Asia; if you had to choose its flashiest manifestation, Macau would be it. From the neon lights and packed ferries to the string of five-star casino properties going up on the Cotai Strip, an area of reclaimed land named after the islands Coloane and Taipa, the buzz has already lured American casino moguls like Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson.

The latter's Las Vegas Sands Corp. has invested nearly $15 billion to construct 14 interconnected hotels, which will join the recently opened Venetian Macao Resort Hotel and Wynn Macau resort, two Sin City doppelgangers with one major difference: They're bigger than the originals. A lot bigger. entertainment destination, a fact not lost on the organizers of the first-ever Macau Jewellery and Watch Fair.

While traffic at the fair was decent, as suggested by the image of people swarming the entrance, exhibitors said buyers from the mainland didn't materialize.

The show, which took place from Jan. 10 to 13, at the Cotai Strip Convention and Exhibition Center at the Venetian Macao, drew exhibitors anxious to secure a foothold in the jewelry trade's newest gathering place. (Indeed, at least three additional buying fairs are scheduled to storm Macau this year alone.)

"Macau has risen as a new hub in Asia, integrating business and entertainment," said Jime Essink, CEO of CMP Asia, the fair organizer, at a welcome reception sponsored by the Israel Diamond Institute. "With its other advantages, such as its free-port status enhancing the jewelry trade and its proximity to jewelry manufacturing cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen, we believe Macau will become an efficient international jewelry trading platform."

After Essink's remarks, a motley crew of Chinese band members broke into a cheerful rendition of "Hava Nagila." Like the "Kosher Macau" sign upstairs, the song was meant to appeal to the contingent of Israelis—58 companies in total—who had come to Macau in force to demonstrate their professed claim on the Far East diamond market.

"There's a lot of expectation that mainland Chinese buyers are coming," said Ephraim Zion, the Israeli managing director of Dehres, one of Hong Kong's biggest diamond companies, on the show's opening day. "But I believe they're not ready yet."

The jewelry trade's muscling into Macau with a series of fairs, showing enormous gems like this emerald brooch by Gorgoglione.

Zion wasn't impressed with mainland China's appetite for stones—"They buy melee, 15, 20-pointers," he said—but he is convinced the region holds great promise for purveyors of luxury goods.

He's not alone. Judging by the mind-boggling selection of large diamonds on the show floor—including a matching pair of 52-carat round brilliants on display at the Pluczenik booth bearing a price tag of $5 million—other exhibitors are feeling much the same way.

"We're looking to open up the Asian market," said Christian Tse, the Los Angeles designer known for couture-level platinum and diamond jewels. He and his wife, Victoria, used their booth at the show to suss out new business opportunities. "It's going to be a good market. We just have to stick it through."

In the end, show traffic proved decent, but while inter-dealer trading was strong, true to Zion's prediction, the mainland Chinese buyers whom everyone half-expected, half-hoped would buy everything in sight didn't live up to the hype. On the contrary, the biggest story about the mainlanders who'd come to the show focused on their ill-adept thievery.

"Someone just tried to rob me," said Jeff Greenwald of Diamex, a New York diamond dealer who caught someone trying to switch one of his real stones with a cubic zirconia.

Stanley Ho's iconic Casino Lisboa has long provided visitors to Macau with a place to gamble.

Meanwhile, back at the Grand Lisboa, beside the soaring lotus flower fountain in the gilded entranceway, more people gathered around another Stanley Ho acquisition: the bronze horse head of Yuanmingyuan, a Qing dynasty sculpture stolen in 1860 and purchased by Ho at Sotheby's last year for HK$69.1 million (about $8.8 million).

Although Ho will soon return the horse head to China, it was, for the thousands of tourists streaming through Macau in January, a potent symbol of how much wealth can be found here, not to mention the largesse that goes along with it.