MGM Resorts International announced today it has chosen two businessmen with investment banking backgrounds to lead the real estate investment trust into which the company is moving 10 of its properties.
MGM Resorts said James Stewart will be the CEO and Andy Chien will be chief financial officer of the new trust, MGM Growth Properties LLC. They’ll be responsible for the formation of and the initial public offering for the trust, commonly known as a REIT.
Both previously worked for the investment bank Greenhill & Co., where Stewart was a managing director and head of the gaming, lodging and leisure group, and Chien was a managing director of real estate, gaming, lodging and leisure.
“James and Andy are well known and highly regarded investment banking leaders, and they bring to (MGM Growth Properties) more than 40 years of collective advisory and financial experience that we believe is critical to establishing a solid foundation for (MGM Growth Properties),” MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren said in a statement.
The appointments follow the announcement from MGM Resorts in October that the company was creating the REIT for seven Strip properties: Mandalay Bay, the Mirage, Monte Carlo, New York-New York, Luxor, Excalibur and the Park. MGM Growth Properties will also own the MGM Grand Detroit in Michigan, as well as the Beau Rivage and Gold Strike Tunica in Mississippi.
Murren has previously indicated MGM Resorts would likely own about 70 percent of MGM Growth Properties.