Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd., developer of the only casino on the Pacific island of Saipan, announced last week that it has acquired 50 percent of a company building a hotel and housing on the island.
In a July 10 filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, IPI said: “In view of the location and the uses of the lands under the target company, the directors consider that the acquisition of the target company is in line with the business development of the group.”
An IPI subsidiary, Excel Earth Ltd., will pay First Sinopan International Ltd. more than US$23.65 million for 50 percent of the equity in American Sinopan LLC. Imperial Pacific said American Sinopan owns two tracts of land on Saipan totaling about 1.4 million square feet. On one lot, 12 villas and a three-story public facility are in development. On the other lot, a resort hotel with 1,700-plus rooms is under construction.
Meanwhile, completion of the Imperial Palace casino resort, which has been postponed several times due to revenue shortfalls, may be on the horizon. Imperial Pacific announced on July 8 that its controlling shareholder, Inventive Star Ltd., had agreed to sell about 9.79 percent of the company to Guan Lian Capital Holdings Group, then lend the proceeds back to IPI to help fund completion of the resort. The announcement said the sale would reduce Inventive Star’s IPI stake from about 63.47 percent to about 53.68 percent.
The announcement gave no additional information about the buyer or disclose the sale price.
