Inside Asian Gaming

Oct 2007 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 13 plains Mr Lui. “Permira’s international gaming and consumer expertise will be of great value to Galaxy as it con- tinues to develop its position as a leading casino, hotel and entertain- ment group in Macau.” Mr Lui believes GEG can work well with Gala Coral in particular, as sports betting is one of the products Gal- axy hopes to bring to Macau, with a virtual sports book to be introduced at Level III of StarWorld before Chi- nese New Year. The leisure, retail and consum- er sectors represent 40% of Per- mira’s investments, with portfolio companies including Cortefiel, Ferretti, Hugo Boss, and Valenti- no. Mr Lui also hopes to leverage these brands in GEG’s Macau de- velopments. And of course, “the other thing I think they can bring to us is their financing resourceful- ness,”addsMr Lui.GEG is already set to save HK$300 million in interest every year thanks to the deal, and “next year, when we have more ability to refi- nance our debts, we will make big use of their connections and their resourcefulness to restructure our debt financ- ing to make ourselves more competitive.”