INTERVIEW-Melco Crown aims to double shr with new casino

* 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 (MPEL.O) 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. (0200.HK) and Australia's Crown Ltd CWN.AU, 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. (LVS.N) and Galaxy Entertainment Group (0027.HK), 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. (For related stories on the gaming industry, click [nHKG213363].)