Hopes to cash in on proximity to Thailand
Australia-listed casino operator Donaco International Ltd. has officially closed on its acquisition of the casino resort business at Star Vegas Resort and Club in Poipet, Cambodia.
As part of the deal, Donaco has also signed a binding agreement for a $20 million working capital facility and agreed to issue warrants worth more than $7 million worth of its own shares to the lender, reported GGRAsia.
According to Forbes, the Cambodian gaming market is especially robust due to its proximity to Thailand, where casinos are still illegal. The publication called the Star Vegas “the best casino” in Poipet, with 109 gaming tables in a gaming area that could accommodate more than twice that number, along with more than 1,260 gaming machines.
In a May filing to the Australian Securities Exchange, Donaco stated that it had a “vendor warranty” that Star Vegas’s EBITDA will total “at least $60 million per year for the two full years following acquisition.” In the event of a shortfall, that amount would be “topped up by the vendor in cash.”
Donaco also runs the Aristo International Hotel in Lao Cai province in Vietnam on the Chinese border.
Donaco was established in 2002 by Joey Lim and his grandfather Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, who also founded the Genting conglomerate of Malaysia.
