Inside Asian Gaming

september 2016 inside asian gaming 41 Henry Cheng Chairman Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Power 657 last – Score year Claims to Fame Family entered gaming through friendship with Stanley Ho Partner with Suncity Group in Vietnam, Star Entertainment in Australia 37 Asian Gaming POWER 50 2 0 1 6 Family patriarch Cheng Yu-tung bought a 10% stake in Stanley Ho’s Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM), the investment company that controls Macau casino operator SJM Holdings, to rid his friend of an unwanted business partner. As he’s taken control of the family’s multibillion dollar jewelry to ferry to property empire from his elderly, ailing father, Henry Cheng has extended its foothold in Asian gaming. Last year, privately held Chow Tai Fook Enterprises revived the US$4 billion Hoi An South integrated resort initiative in Quang Nam province along Vietnam’s central coast, replacing Genting Group as the long dormant project’s majority partner alongside local investor VinaCapital and Macau junket market leader Suncity. Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, a Quang Nam native, attended the groundbreaking in April, an unprecedented gesture of political support in a market that bans local play. A new casino law, drafted this year but likely far from enactment, is expected to allow restricted local play at a selected casino; Hoi An South, expected to open its US$500 million first phase in 2019, is a hot favorite. In Australia, Destination Brisbane led by Star Entertainment with Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium as partners won the bid for Queen’s Wharf. CTF’s database of high net worth Chinese from its jewelry and hotel chains is expected to drive Asian business to the US$3 billion IR. Resorts World Manila broke the mold in the Philippine capital, introducing the integrated resort model in 2009. RWM doubled Philippine gaming revenue, proving the market wanted a casino experience superior to government owned Pagcor and highlighting Manila’s potential as an international gaming destination. Now RWM risks becoming a victim of its own success by inspiring new IRs in Entertainment City. Located near the airport and well served by the road system, RWM is a joint venture of Genting Hong Kong and Alliance Global, part of self-made billionaire Andrew Tan’s consumer goods conglomerate listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange as Travellers International Hotel Group. Already with 1,200 guest rooms in three hotels, a shopping mall, major nightclub, cineplex and concert hall, plus 310 gaming tables and 1,900 electronic gaming positions, RWM isn’t standing still. A 227 room extension of its Marriott opens this month – part of a US$650 million investment program that will add three more hotels, plus new gaming and retail areas. Still, Manila’s center of gaming gravity appears inexorably shifting to Entertainment City, home of market leader Solaire, City of Dreams Manila and soon, US$2 billion Okada. In the second quarter, RWM’s gaming revenue grew 9.1% to P6.2 billion – a distant second to Solaire though still nearly double that of CoD Manila. RWM EBITDA rose 42% to P1.6 billion mainly because it retreated from the low margin junket trade as Entertainment City resorts aggressively pursue VIPs. Travellers has the fourth and final IR license for Entertainment City, its commitment to build a US$1.1 billion resort there extended to the end of 2020. Kingson Sian will have a lot to say about how Entertainment City fits into Travellers’ future.