Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming April 2015 26 Cover Story Landing International Development Limited, held a ceremonial groundbreaking for their Resorts World Jeju development. As Union Gaming Research Macau analyst Grant Govertsen noted, “While we would typically not get too excited about a ceremonial groundbreaking, we would highlight that the governor of Jeju, Won Hee-Ryong, not only attended the event but also participated in it. Recall that following his election as governor last June, he put the brakes on several projects—gaming and non-gaming—in order to conduct a more comprehensive review of them. We believe this is why the RWJ groundbreaking was postponed for more than half a year. Given the governor’s participation in the groundbreaking event, we believe that: 1) the governor has blessed the RWJ project and it should now be able to move full-speed ahead; and 2) the governor is not as anti-gaming as certain parties have suggested— in fact, we believe he could ultimately be supportive of a small number of high-quality gaming projects in Jeju.” Mr Govertsen predicts Resorts World Jeju, with an anticipated budget of $1.8 billion and expected to open in phases between 2017 and 2019, “will be right out of the Resorts World Sentosa playbook— theme parks, hotels, entertainment, etc., and all in a low-rise format— but with the addition of residential properties that will (presumably) be marketed to mainland Chinese.” Paradise Group says it also intends to build an IR in Jeju, where it currently has two casinos. Jeju’s Upside Potential Daiwa Securities analysts Jamie Soo and Adrian Chan don’t believe Resorts World Jeju will be a big earner for Genting Singapore. “The size of the casino still remains unclear, but we do not expect a significant contribution to earnings since only foreigners are allowed in,” they wrote. “Our previous estimates show that RWJ would add only about 1-2% to Genting’s top line, assuming RWJ earns the average of foreigner-only casinos in Korea.” Still, there could be potential for the popular volcanic holiday island to surprise on the upside. Jeju has been particularly welcoming to Chinese visitors, Resorts World Jeju, with an anticipated budget of $1.8 billion and expected to open in phases between 2017 and 2019, “will be right out of the Resorts World Sentosa playbook— theme parks, hotels, entertainment, etc., and all in a low-rise format.” Jeju is a one-hour flight from Shanghai and two-and-a-half hours from Beijing. The number of Chinese visitors to the island jumped 58% to 2.9 million last year, almost half the 6.1 million Chinese visitors who descended on South Korea last year. Harbin Beijing Changchun Shenyang Dalian Yantai Jinan Shanghai Hangzhou Guangzhou Taipei Guam Fukuoka Osaka Nagoya Tokyo JEJU