Clairvest Neem Ventures, which hoped to apply for an integrated resort license in Wakayama, Japan, has closed up shop in the prefecture, but will maintain its Tokyo office and seek other opportunities in the country’s casino industry.
The Canadian-led consortium also denies allegations that its financing plan for the IR resort was “unclear”; lack of clarity about the funding was among the reasons Wakayama officials rejected the plan.
According to Asia Gaming Brief, Clairvest said it had a letter of intent on financing with 10 companies for more than JPY 550 billion (US$.23 billion) arranged by Credit Suisse, one of the world’s leading financial institutions. It said Credit Suisse helped it prepare a “high confidence letter” laying out the feasibility of the financing plan. Parts of the letter were disclosed to prefectural lawmakers but not all as it had not yet been approved by the government.
“We were convinced that the certainty of financing for the realization of the Wakayama IR is 100 percent, but maybe because of our lack of explanation we have not been able to provide an understanding of the certainty and I regret we have reached this result,” the company said in a statement.
The Wakayama government chose Clairvest as its development partner last year, though it ranked second to Suncity in the bidding. It planned an IR spanning 569,000 square meters (140 acres) including convention space, restaurants, hotels and a casino.
Governor Yoshinobu Nisaka estimated at the time that the opening of the IR would create about 14,000 new jobs in the prefecture and have an economic spillover effect of about JPY260 billion on an annual basis. The projection is that the Wakayama IR will draw about 13 million visitors per year, of which about 3 million will be foreign nationals.
Clairvest, however, was not the favored bidder. Its proposal was scored at 656 points out of 1,000 by the selection committee in its report completed on April 30, while the other operator in the race at that time, Suncity Group, had scored a far superior 720 points.
Suncity abruptly pulled out of the race in May.
The withdrawal of Wakayama from the bidding leaves just two cities in the running. Osaka has partnered with MGM Resorts and Orix Corp. for an IR on Yumeshima Island. Nagasaki, along with Casinos Austria, hopes to develop an IR at Huis Ten Bosch in Sasebo City.
