Donaco International, the casino operator run by relatives of Lim Kok Thay, is expanding its casino in Vietnam and on the lookout for fresh investments.
Sydney-based Donaco, controlled by Joey and Ben Lim, nephews of the Genting Group chairman, stated in a recent A$75 million private share placement on the ASX that it is eyeing a “strong pipeline of opportunities”.
“A couple of those opportunities have now come very close to bearing fruit,” said Executive Director Ben Reichel, who identified one as an existing business in the gaming and hospitality sector and the other as a new development.
“Our preference is for an existing asset where we can improve the performance, because that will give strong returns to shareholders at an earlier date,” he said.
Donaco owns 95 percent of the Lao Cai International Hotel located about 300 kilometers north of Hanoi and home to a lucrative foreigners-only casino catering to the Chinese border trade. The hotel is being expanded from 34 rooms to 428, and construction is proceeding “on time and on budget,” the company said.
Foreign investment such as Donaco’s figures prominently in Vietnam’s desire to leverage tourism to help boost the economy, and some 10 provinces have applied for permission to host casinos in their jurisdictions. The Communist Party’s Politburo, the final authority on government policy, has voiced its tentative support for rescinding a longstanding ban on casino gambling by the country’s citizens with a view to supporting a proposed investment in an integrated resort with gaming in a special economic zone in the province of Quang Hinh, which also is close to China and the popular tourist destination of Halong Bay.
Farther south, the government also has a vested interest in the success of The Grand – Ho Tram, which opened last summer on the South China Sea coast about 70 miles from Ho Chi Minh City at a cost of US$500 million. Developed with US and Canadian capital, it is the largest investment in resort development in the country’s history, and it’s reported to be struggling in the absence of locals play.
A company from the same coastal area is partnering with a Hong Kong-based contractor on three large-scale resort projects—one of them an international eco-tourist destination planned for 1,500 hectares in the province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, where The Grand is located.
Ho Tram Tourism Company is joining with Hong Kong’s Dragon Best International on the developments, which will be pursued on the basis of a public-private partnership. The others are a trade center with hotels, residences and a convention center in Ho Chi Minh City and a mixed-use resort complex in an economic development zone known as Bo Y on the Vietnam-Lao-Cambodia border.
