Buyer pledges to “enhance the gaming services”
Macau property investor Chong Sio Kin, who plans to buy the Landmark Macau hotel from Macau Legend Development pending regulatory approval, will also be the proud owner of its satellite casino, Pharaoh’s Palace, which operates under the SJM license.
Chong, a junket partner to Macau Legend, told GGRAsia, “Our aim is to enhance the gaming business at the Landmark Macau, but we are yet to form a concrete plan as to the positioning and improving the gaming services at the property.”
Pharaoh’s Palace could use some help. Gaming revenue at the hotel casino fell 22.6 percent year-on-year in the first six months of 2017, according to the seller.
Chong’s firm, Dong Lap Hong Property Investment Co. Ltd., will acquire a 58 percent stake in Landmark according to a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange from Macau Legend. Macau Legend CEO David Chow Kam Fai and one of the group’s wholly-owned units is selling 100 percent of the equity in the Landmark for HKD4.6 billion (US$589.7 million).
Chong currently is an investor in a junket operation at the Landmark, a business he started in 2004. The filing stated that under a participation agreement, wholly-owned Macau Legend unit Hong Hock Development Co. Ltd. would provide gaming services at Landmark “for as long as SJM Holdings maintains its status as a gaming concessionaire in Macau.” SJM’s current concession is due to expire in 2020.
“Hong Hock is still the entity that holds the management rights in terms of gaming operation at the Landmark Macau, where our role in that regard is pretty much an investor and collaborator that helps in the marketing side and introducing gaming patrons,” Chong told GGRAsia.
Macau Legend’s interim report said that as of June 30, the Pharaoh’s Palace casino inside Macau Landmark had 60 mass-market gaming tables, 17 VIP tables and 141 slot machines. The VIP gaming club Neptune Palace currently hosts 10 gaming tables at the Landmark Macau, said Chong.
The Asia Gaming Brief reports that Macau Legend will use net proceeds from the sale for the Macau Fisherman’s Wharf redevelopment. The company added that the costs of operating two entertainment complexes had “increased tremendously.”
“The disposal will streamline the development of hotel and gaming business in MFW,” Macau Legend noted.
According to Macau Legend’s interim report, the Landmark Macau accounted for approximately HKD100 million (US$12.8 million) in non-gaming revenue or approximately 34.2 percent, for the first six months of this year. The 23-story Landmark hotel has 439 rooms and suites.
