A major Asian hotelier and junket investor has joined as a partner with the financiers behind Vietnam’s largest casinos, The Grand – Ho Tram.
Vancouver-based Asian Coast Development (Canada) Limited, which is majority owned by Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital, said NewCity Capital is investing in the company, though it did not disclose the amounts involved or the terms.
NewCity and subsidiary NewCity Ho Tram Investment Co. are the creations of American investor Chien Lee, co-founder of NYSE-listed 7 Days Group Holdings, a budget hotel chain with 2,000 properties in 300 cities across Asia. Lee also helped found Hong Kong-based, Nasdaq-listed junket promoter Iao Kun Group Holding. Formerly known as Asia Entertainment & Resources, Iao Kun operates VIP rooms in five Macau casinos.
“We are very excited to have an investor that brings capital as well as marketing and operating expertise to our project,” Falcone said.
ADCL opened the US$500 million Grand – Ho Tram last July on the South China Sea coast about 90 miles from Ho Chi Minh City with a hotel that features 514 rooms and a casino that is restricted by law to foreign passport holders.
The casino has struggled in the absence of domestic play, but ACDL has mapped an expansion that commenced earlier this year with the soft opening of a golf course designed by Greg Norman. A second hotel tower with 550 rooms is in the works and a second casino that will bring the property from 90 table games and 600 machine games to Vietnam’s legal limit of 180 live tables and 2,000 slots and EGMs.
“The Ho Tram Strip is one of the most exciting tourism developments in Asia Pacific,” said Lee. “I expect Vietnam to be one of the fastest-growing tourism markets in the region and the Ho Tram Strip development has a first-mover advantage in the large-scale integrated resort market.”
