It looks like Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts is planning an IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange but no one knows for sure when it will take place. Wynn Resorts hired financial consultants from three of the top firms in the industry: UBS, Morgan Stanley and Deutche Bank. These advisors would handle the entire transaction for Wynn if it indeed comes to pass. It would most likely be the single largest IPO in Hong Kong this year.

Speculation has been that the IPO would raise money to complete its new Macau Encore as well as paying construction costs for a huge development planned for the Cotai Strip. The Encore project was begun in 2007 and slated to open in 2010. The new resort is supposed to be built on the existing 52-acre parcel that Wynn Resorts already owns near the City of Dreams complex. The resort will include a huge, all suite hotel and casino with plans incorporating from 1,500 to 2,000 hotel suites.

Wynn Resorts began in Macau back in 2006 with it’s first casino development and then expanded it in 2007 by adding 85 new gaming tables, 551 slot machines and a signature shooting fountain. The expansion also added an additional 20,000 square feet of retail space that includes 11 high end boutiques. The next addition will be the completion of Encore, a tower with 400 hotel suites next door. Last year, they announced plans for the Cotai Strip project.

Wynn Resorts is one of only 6 casino operators to be licensed in Macau, a situation that is unlikely to change any time soon given the Macau’s recent moratorium on issuing new licenses. With Macau surpassing Las Vegas in gambling revenues this year and the downturn in the US economic picture, Wynn is apparently putting his focus on the Chinese enclave for the future of his company and the gambling industry in general.

The Hong Kong stock market is in a state of turbulence right now, with both the credit and real estate markets experiencing difficulties. Given these conditions, industry insiders says that it would be impossible to predict what would be the best timing and fund-raising potential of a Wynn IPO in Hong Kong. However, estimates have been made in the range of $500 million to $1 billion US dollars as the possibility.