Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2008 8 Asian Gaming 50 4 Lim Kok Thay Chairman and CEO, Genting Berhad 5 Francis Lui Deputy Chairman, Galaxy Entertainment Group Lim Kok Thay was gaming’s equivalent of a crown prince, destined to run Malaysia’s Genting Group, the company founded by his father. The late Lim Goh Tong started with nothing but built a gaming and resorts conglomerate starting with his pioneering property the Genting Highlands Resort in Malaysia. His son inherited not just the businesses but also a determination to succeed.He has also proved to be something of a visionary, expanding Genting’s activities in its home market and abroad. Since his appointment as Genting’s president and chief executive in November 2002, and later as chairman in December 2003, Mr Lim has led Genting’s acquisition of Britain’s Maxims Casino Club, an exclusive high-end casino, and raised its stake in London Clubs International, which operates casinos in London, Egypt, South Africa and Lebanon. Through its Genting Stanley (formerly Stanley Leisure) subsidiary,Genting is now effectively the largest casino operator of his own commitment to education and hard work. Rather than simply relying on the rising fortunes of the gaming industry, he has diversified activities to areas including: power generation, plantation management, propertydevelopment,electroniccommerce, information technology development,paper manufacturing, and oil and gas activities, making it one of Asia’s leading multinational corporations. in the UK, according to the company. Mr Lim drove casino developments for Genting in Australia (Burswood and Adelaide casinos) and brokered a partnership to operate Subic Bay Resort and Casino in the Philippines. Mr Lim’s biggest gaming coup outside Malaysia secured the construction of Genting’s Resorts World at Sentosa, Singapore. The plans for the resort include a Universal Studios theme park and animation studio, six hotels, the world’s largest marine park,meeting facilities, shops, and a 1,600-seat theatre. Demonstrating his faith in the Sentosa project, Mr Lim said he expects it will help the company overtake Harrah’s Entertainment (recently renamed Caesars Entertainment) and Wynn Resorts to become the world’s third largest gaming operator by market value. Takings from the increasing number of regional tourists continues to buoy Genting’s flagship Genting Highlands Resort. Around 20 million people a year have been visiting the resort since Mr Lim reinvented it as a ‘city of entertainment’. Visitors from China and India make up the bulk of Malaysia’s gaming tourists. Mr Lim’s leadership style is the result not only of his father’s guidance, but also When Macau’s casino industry was liberalised in 2002, Francis Lui decided to risk shifting the focus of his family’s company from construction to gaming. Mr Lui’s Galaxy Entertainment Group made a quick entry into Macau by opening a handful of casinos within hotels owned by other companies. These properties, branded City Clubs, still operate within the Waldo, Rio, President and the Grand Waldo venues. But it was Galaxy’s flagship property, StarWorld Hotel and Casino, that really enabled the company to place its stamp on Macau’s gaming landscape. Centrally located onMacau’s Friendship Avenue adjacent toWynnMacau,StarWorld continues the approach taken by the City Clubs to attract and entertain Macau’s VIP gaming clientele, but on a larger, more glamorous scale. The City Clubs enabled Galaxy to establish relationships with VIP room operators before other newcomers, helping it gain a crucial foothold in the lucrative VIP market. StarWorld is currently facing tough competition in the VIP market following the recent escalation of junket commission rates at Crown Macau. The company announced its response would be to add at least 100 new VIP tables—probably before the end of the year, and adopt a similarly aggressive junket arrangement to that adopted by Crown. Galaxy is also building Galaxy Mega Resort along Macau’s Cotai Strip, with the first phase featuring a 1,500 room hotel tower and casino podium, scheduled to open in mid-2009. A second hotel tower with 700 rooms, suites and villas is due to open towards the end of 2009. Galaxy has a land bank of an additional 10.2 million sq. ft on Cotai, giving the company ample room to expand and capture evolving market opportunities. Mr Lui believes Galaxy is better placed to identify these opportunities than the US- based operators in Macau. In an interview with Inside Asian Gaming , he alluded to Galaxy’s edge “as a company owned and operated by Chinese”. That, he believes, gives Galaxy an understanding “of the specific tastes of Asian visitors for hotel, entertainment and dining.”