MACAU—The bunny is beckoning, and this time it’s from Macau. The entertainment empire founded by will look this year for croupiers and other staff to work at the Playboy Mansion Macao when it opens in 2009, joining Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn and local tycoon Stanley Ho in an investment rush into the southern Chinese city.

The envisioned 40,000 sq ft casino-retail complex Д a partial replica of the original in Los Angeles Д will house less than 50 gaming tables.

Guests hoping to emulate Hefner’s flamboyant lifestyle will be able to dine, shop, stay in a Hugh Hefner Villa and take a dip in the Playboy pool.

“There will be bunnies at the gaming tables,” Chairman and Chief Executive Christie Hefner, Hefner’s daughter, told reporters. “The brand really represents lifestyle and entertainment for grown-ups, like represents lifestyle and entertainment for kids.”

Playboy is no stranger to Chinese customers: the firm wanted to open an exclusive club in Shanghai in 2004 or 2005 but the city once known as the Whore of the Orient rejected its advances.

Expansion into India could be on the cards for the New York-listed firm, which encompasses TV and video divisions anchored by the long-running Playboy magazine.

“India is certainly a dynamic market,” said Hefner. “It’s certainly on our radar screens with no specific plans to announce.”

Two bunny-eared, white-tailed Playboy bunnies Д flown in for the occasion from Las Vegas Д served champagne at the Wednesday launch ceremony for the casino-cum-mall, which will be housed in the $2 billion Macao Studio City complex.

“Anybody can throw a party,” said Macao Studio City co-Chairman and co-Chief Executive David Friedman. “But when Playboy throws a party, that’s a party that everyone Д stars and celebrities Д want to go to.”

DAVID Gyngell and Channel Nine’s private equity masters have shown they are willing to spend their way back to the top of the ratings tree, with a $US100 million ($A110 million) deal to snatch the Olympic Games from the Seven Network.

It’s the third time that Nine’s new chief executive has pulled out the chequebook before his official return to the network next month. Just days after accepting the job, Mr Gyngell announced a new version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, raising the prize to $5 million to win back viewers.

PBL Media, which is controlled by CVC Asia Pacific since James Packer’s sell-down this year, has rehired the former Nine boss to reverse the network’s fortunes.

Nine has lost its lead in ratings and advertising sales to Seven. Mr Gyngell’s brief is to improve the network’s content to boost revenue growth. “One of the great myths is that private equity is focused on costs,” PBL Media boss Ian Law said last month.

Atul Lele from White Funds Management said investing heavily in better programs was a proven way to win viewers. “That’s what Channel Seven did in terms of their success over the past two years, and it’s good to see that Gyngell is taking on that same strategy to revive Channel Nine’s fortunes.”

Seven has attracted the biggest TV audiences in all but two weeks this year with hit shows like Kath and Kim and Border Security. It is tipped to dominate ratings again next year, helped by its coverage of the Beijing Olympics. The network has broadcast the marquee sporting event since 1956, with the exception of the 1984 and 1988 Games which went to Network Ten.

Mr Gyngell was in Lausanne on Friday to personally submit Nine’s bid for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2012 London Summer Olympics at the International Olympic Committee’s headquarters. He joined his predecessor Jeffrey Browne, who had worked on the deal for more than 18 months. Nine is understood to have outbid a $US75 million offer from Seven.

Nine’s bid was helped by the fact that it teamed with pay TV operator Foxtel and offered internet coverage through ninemsn, its joint venture with Microsoft, which will enable it to “reach the broadest possible audience on a variety of broadcast platforms,” according to IOC President Jacques Rogge.

NEW partnerships between landowners and managed investment scheme (MIS) operators could drive investment in long-term hardwood planta- tions.

That was a key message of consultant Craig Taylor to a Melbourne forestry conference, Plantation Eucalypts for High-Value Timber.

Mr Taylor, whose clients include Macquarie Bank, said under government changes to MIS in July, investors would be able to trade their interests after four years, thus creating a secondary market.

“This will create a whole lot of opportunities to restructure MIS for long-rotation investments,” he said. Most MIS projects now are 10 to 12-year hardwood plantations for woodchips.

For example, Mr Taylor said an agreement could be made for the investor to sell their interest to an industrial processor, the government, or a timberland investment management organisations (TIMO) such as Hancock Victorian Plantations.

“The advantages will be in matching the cash flow timing to the needs of different types of investors,” he said.

An MIS could establish a plantation and a TIMO could buy the interest on the secondary market closer to the time of harvest, he said.

Mr Taylor said MIS companies preferred to lease land rather than buy it, but were forced to buy because there was little suitable leased land available. Buying land had pushed up land values in the locations targeted by developers.

More creative strategies could include putting plantations on only parts of a farmer’s land, such as wide shelter belts.

“The other issues are scale. Plantations must have scale and not have a high fixed-cost component,” he said.

Mr Taylor presented to the conference a simple model based on a 25-year hardwood rotation that showed a nominal return on investment of 9.27 per cent. Returns would increase if income was earned after retirement, as revenue would be taxed at 15 per cent, he said.

The model included a range of assumptions, such as planning and establishment costs ($1500 per hectare), land rental ($120 per hectare), and stumpage rates of $22 a cubic metre for pulpwood to $157 a cubic metre for large sawlogs.

Land rentals at double this rate, $240 per hectare, would lower returns to 8.04 per cent, he said.

Mr Taylor said many factors stopped landowners establishing their own long-term plantations. These ranged from the high up-front costs, the lack of scale, and a reluctance to give up productive land and regarding trees as a 25-year crop.

However, the Federal Government could provide low-interest loans and free technical support as it did with long-rotation softwoods in the 1960s and 1970s, and even pay for environmental services.

“But I don’t see landowners dedicating large good parts of their land to grow trees,” he said. “Trees will remain a relatively insignificant part of their land, and will not be a base for the timber industry in the region.”

Mr Taylor said TIMOs were unlikely to invest in high-value plantations, preferring to gain immediate regular cash flows.

Partnerships with MIS companies were more likely, and governments were also unlikely to invest in commercial-scale hardwood plantations, he said.

Mr Taylor said apart from secondary markets, other factors gave MIS companies the incentive to invest in long-term rotations. Plantation managers’ knowledge of site selection, genetics and silviculture had increased, giving promoters more confidence in their products. Many people also wanted more investment diversity.

However, Mr Taylor said there were risks involved with longer rotations, such as fire, drought, insect attack, frost and floods. KEY POINTS PMatching cash flow timing to the needs of different investors could drive investment.

PJuly MIS changes mean investors can trade interests, creating a secondary market.

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