Australia-listed casino operator Silver Heritage Group Ltd. last week announced the appointment of James Spenceley as the company’s non-executive chairman and director. Spenceley replaced David Green, who resigned last month.
In a filing to the Australian Securities Exchange, the company said Spenceley will also serve as chairman of the People and Culture Committee at Silver Heritage.
According to GGRAsia, the new chairman was described in the May 28 filing as an “award-winning entrepreneur and experienced company director.” He is the founder and former chief executive of Vocus Communication Ltd., Australia’s fourth largest telecommunications company.
Spenceley is also chairman of job-sharing platform Airtasker and was a recent co-founder of MHOR Asset Management, an Australian small-capital investment fund, the filing reported.
Silver Heritage operates the new Tiger Palace Resort Bhairahawa in Nepal, on the border of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The boutique casino operator also runs the Millionaire’s Club and Casino in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, and the Phoenix International Club, near Hanoi in Vietnam.
On May 22, Silver Heritage announced that independent non-executive director Richard Barker resigned. According to Asia Gaming Brief, all three of the company’s current non-executive directors “have agreed to waive half of their fees until the end of 2018, at which point this arrangement will be reassessed taking into account trading conditions for the company at that point in time.”
Those waivers and the reduction of the director team from four to three will save the company AU 375,000 (US$283,000), the firm added. Silver Heritage said board members have agreed to the cuts to help manage expected tight liquidity in the second half as the Nepal IR ramps up.
The opening of Tiger Palace and underperformance at the Vietnam and Kathmandu resorts led to a Q1 adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.9 million, the company noted. “During the ramp-up phase of Tiger Palace, the board continues to assess all strategic and financial options to ensure adequate funding is available to maximize long-term value for shareholders,” CEO Mike Bolsover said in an address to investors, which was filed to the Australia Stock Exchange.
The company said Tiger Palace is now achieving steady growth in footfall, gaming and non-gaming revenue, AGB reported.
