Hong Kong-listed junket operator Suncity Group Holdings, which now controls 27.97 percent of Russian gaming promoter Summit Ascent Holdings Ltd., should boost VIP visits to the Primorye Integrated Entertainment Zone, a casino district near the Black Sea port city of Vladivostok, according to Eric Landheer, an executive director of Summit Ascent.
In comments to GGRAsia, Landheer said, “We believe that Suncity will take an active role in and have a significant positive impact of the growth of our VIP business, and that their experience as the premier VIP operator in the world will enable us to enhance our offerings to suit their extensive client base.”
Suncity Group Holdings is controlled by Alvin Chau, head of the privately-held Suncity Group, the top VIP junket investor in Macau. Summit Ascent is the company behind the Tigre de Cristal casino resort in the Russian Far East. The venue, near the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, has been targeting players from nearby China and other markets in East Asia, the news outlet reported.
In April, shortly after Suncity upped its stake Summit Ascent, it installed two Suncity executives to posts at Summit: Andrew Lo became a deputy chairman and executive director and CFO Anthony Chiu also became an executive director.
Landheer says the Suncity brand will serve the property well when it opens Phase II of the development. The addition will add hotel rooms, gaming tables and slot machines, more restaurants and bars, an “indoor beach club” and a “premium outlet mall,” Summit Ascent disclosed in its 2018 financial report. Phase II is expected to open “in the summer of 2021,” the group added, but Landheer said Suncity’s involvement delay that process.
“Suncity will obviously have significant input into the design, construction and the management of Tigre de Cristal’s Phase II project,” he said. “Now this could potentially impact the time frame for completion as we ensure that we build the first-class product that will suit the VIP clientele, and help Summit Ascent to further ramp up VIP business in partnership with its new largest shareholder.”
In its 2018 results, Summit Ascent said its mass table business has overtaken the rolling chip business as the main revenue generator at Tigre de Cristal. Mass revenue rose 26 percent year-on-year to HKD166.9 million (US$21.3 million). Rolling-chip turnover dropped from approximately HKD18.79 billion in 2017 to about HKD15.56 billion in 2018. Net win the rolling-chip business declined by 35.5 percent year-over-year to HKD109 million in 2018.
Presently, VIP operations at Tigre de Cristal, which opened in October 2015 and is still the only operating IR in the PIEZ, is supported by some junket operators from Macau and what he called “casual” junkets.
Suncity has reached beyond its junket business to become an operator. It is now developing a new resort called Hoiana in Vietnam, which is due to open later this year, and has made deal to manage third-party-controlled properties in markets including Cambodia, where it will soon launch its second VIP club at XiGang International Casino in Sihanoukville. In 2018, Suncity signed an agreement with another Sihanoukville casino operator, Golden Sun Sky, to provide consultancy, pre-opening and casino management services at an under-construction casino-resort at Otres Beach, due for completion in late 2019.
