HONG KONG - US casino billionaire Steve Wynn, whose firm operates Macau's Wynn resort, is exploring tapping Hong Kong's stock market for as much as US$3 billion (S$4.08 billion), a report said on Thursday.

The company would use the cash to finance its ambitious expansion plans in the nearby gaming haven of Macau, the South China Morning Post said, citing unnamed sources.

However, the current poor market conditions in Hong Kong - the benchmark index has tumbled more than 20 per cent since the start of the year - could delay any move, the report said.

'At the moment, the market is definitely not right.' The report said Wynn's current plans to open a 400-room hotel tower called Encore next to its existing property did not need new financing.

Instead, it could use any cash raised from a share sale to build a resort on the Cotai Strip, a huge piece of reclaimed land close to Las Vegas Sands' huge Venetian Casino, which opened last August.

Several projects are currently being built there in an effort to recreate the Las Vegas Strip, which Macau last year overtook in terms of gaming revenue.

The potential listing comes as Wynn's Macau rival, Mr Stanley Ho, is expected to take his company public in Hong Kong next week in a move which has reportedly raised around US$500 million.

A mixture of poor market conditions and legal action by his estranged sister, Ms Winnie Ho, has delayed the listing since it was first mentioned in January, when the IPO was aiming to raise US$2 billion.

Since Mr Ho's monopoly on gaming in the former Portuguese colony was broken up in 2002, the city has seen a flood of investment from foreign operators, transforming it into a gleaming gambling paradise. -- AFP

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