Closure of Mirage show may cut profit
By Jeannine DeFoe
Bloomberg News Service
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Horn, 59, was bitten in the neck by a 600-pound white tiger during a Friday night performance at the Mirage casino in Las Vegas. Horn remained in critical condition yesterday, said Cheryl Persinger, a spokeswoman for University Medical Center in Las Vegas.
The show, featuring illusions with tigers and other animals, has been canceled indefinitely, MGM spokes-man Alan Feldman said.
Siegfried & Roy's six weekly shows always sold out at the Mirage's 1,504-seat theater, Feldman said. The MGM Mirage gets less than half the revenue from the sale of the $110.50 tickets, Lehman Brothers analyst Joyce Minor estimated. The Mirage will lose restaurant, casino and retail revenue from guests who would have seen the show, Falcone said.
"It's been an outstanding and very successful show," Falcone said.
He estimates that the loss of the show will cut annual profit by 5 cents to 10 cents a share.
"It's going to be a loss for the property," he said.
The duo has performed at the Mirage since February 1990.
Shares of MGM Mirage, based in Las Vegas, fell 35 cents to $36.48 at the close of New York Stock Exchange trading. MGM Mirage gets two-thirds of its profit from its Las Vegas casinos, including the Bellagio and MGM Grand.
MGM Mirage was forecast to post a profit of $1.49 a share in 2003 and $1.77 in 2004, the average estimates of analysts in a Thomson Financial survey. The company had net income of $1.83 a share in 2002.
