CLAIMS TO FAME
- Majority owner of Hong Kong listed NagaCorp
- Personally financing half of its US$3.5 billion Naga3 expansion
Chen Lip Keong’s NagaWorld integrated resort in Phnom Penh has been under the day-to-day management of a triumvirate of co-CEO sons for well over a year, but there is little visibility on how the company will fare as the old man of Cambodian gaming slips further into the background.
This is partly because the company is still reliant on Chen’s personal wealth to overcome medium-term challenges. His recent “shareholder loan” of US$80m to NagaCorp in October, issued to ease pressure from an outstanding bonds deadline, is evidence that the company isn’t going anywhere without him – for now.
The NagaWorld dual hotel-casino precinct has been blessed, like Cambodia itself, with a much less damaging pandemic experience than one might expect in a low-income country struggling to grow.
But the luck that has accompanied Chen’s empire through most of its evolution started to fail him in 2023. In June, NagaCorp announced that the completion date for its central design and build agreement for the gargantuan Naga3 extension had been extended from 2025 to 2029, as grim an index as any of pandemic complications and Chinese tourism volatility seeping into company metrics and financing.
Later that month Moody’s downgraded NagaCorp’s corporate rating, outlook, and US dollar bond rating, citing a lack of refinancing prospects and rising risk of a “distressed exchange”.
Chen’s latest injection of cash raises new questions of how the company will evolve when he retires, and who in the family will sign the cheques to call in the cavalry.
For the full list of 2023 Asian Gaming Power 50 winners, click here.
