Ambrose So, the vice chairman, executive director and CEO of Macau casino operator SJM Holdings, has sold a combined 30.02 million shares in the company, reaping a total of HK$87 million (US$11.1 million).
According to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, as reported by GGRAsia, So offloaded 1.26 million shares at HK$2.89 on August 12 and sold an additional 28.76 million shares at HK$2.90 on August 15. As a result, his stake in SJM fell from 3.29 percent to 2.79 percent.
At the same time, SJM Chairwoman Daisy Ho increased her holdings, buying 9.58 million shares on August 15 for HK$2.90 per share, for a total of HK$27.8 million (US$3.5 million). She now owns about 0.3 percent of the company.
After reporting a US$352 million loss for the first half of 2022, SJM announced it will raise $637 million in equity via a term loan and a rights issue to comply with Macau’s new gaming law, which requires all would-be gaming concessionaires in the Chinese city to hold at least MOP$5 billion in share capital.
“Both the loan and the rights issue bolster the company’s balance sheet position and liquidity and will place SJM Resorts in a strong position to participate in the tender for new Macau gaming concessions later this year,” Ho said at the time.
According to Asia Gaming Brief, despite the impact of Covid, SJM is bullish on its Grand Lisboa Palace on Cotai, which opened Phase 1 of development in July 2021. Currently, the group continues to enhance the property, with a total project cost of approximately $39 billion to be funded by internal resources and debt financing.
