Inside Asian Gaming

September 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 33 44 (46) Nick Niglio COO and Executive Director, Neptune Group Ltd Entertainment Group’s StarWorld Hotel & Casino. Since the beginning of 2007, Neptune Group has been buying up smaller junket operators or taking equity stakes in entities that have profit agreements with Macau junkets. The company is now considered— along with A-Max Holdings, Dore Holdings and Golden Resorts Group (companies that are also Hong Kong listed)—one of the key junket aggregators in the Macau market. Neptune Group has been, for the past year, consolidating its interest in Macau to further enhance its value to investors. As part of this consolidation, Mr Niglio has eliminated unprofitable sub junkets and sought to expand Neptune’s presence in all areas of the casino floor. Expect Neptune to attempt to diversify its business throughout 2010 with new capital projects as it pursues new revenue streams. Mr Niglio brings extensive experience from the US gaming sector to Macau, including a stint as Executive Vice President for Caesars World Marketing and Executive Vice President of Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In Macau andHongKong, Mr Niglio servedas agaming consultant for several large international concerns seeking to position themselves in Asian markets. As Chief Operating Officer and executive director of Neptune Group Ltd since 2007, Nick Niglio has been helping to ramp up the high growth gaming activities of the Hong Kong-listed conglomerate. Neptune Group, known until July 2007 as Massive Resources International Corp, has interests in securities’ investments and electrical engineering as well as gaming. The company is probably best known to the general public as operator of the casino cruise ship Neptune, which it acquired in June 2005 for HK$68 million (US$8.7 million) and which sails out of Hong Kong to international waters. Within the gaming industry, the company has a growing profile in the operation of VIP junkets to Macau, including dedicated VIP rooms at Galaxy Asian Gaming 50 – 2009 45 (-) Mike Aymong Executive Chairman, Asian Coast Development (Canada) Ltd Mr Aymong makes this year’s list as the leader and public face of the company planning to develop a stretch of Vietnam coastline as the Ho Tram Strip—the first truly integrated gaming resort in the history of that country. The site in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province will have MGM MIRAGE as its branding partner and will be known as the MGM Grand Ho Tram. A groundbreaking ceremony for the site was held in July, according to the English- language edition of Saigon GP Daily , an official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam. Some in the industry were sceptical about whether ACDL and its partners would be able to raise the reported US$4.2 billion cost of the project in the current credit crisis. David Friedman, a senior executive of the Macao Studio City project on the Cotai Strip in Macau, has fallen off this year’s Asian Gaming 50 list precisely because of the failure of that project to get all the finance in place. Industry sources suggest banks in Vietnam have agreed to underwrite a significant portion of the finance for MGM Grand Ho Tram on condition of support from the overseas banking sector. Site designs for Ho Tram were approved by MGM MIRAGE early in 2009. Land clearance began soon afterwards, followed by some preparatory landscaping and tree planting. According to the company’s current schedule, the resort is due to open in early 2012. The resort facilities feature two hotel towers with luxury suites plus convention, entertainmentandrecreationareasincluding a championship golf course designed by Greg Norman. Prior to taking up his role at ACDL, Mr Aymong was Executive Chairman of World Gaming plc, a London-based publicly traded global leader in the back office gaming software industry. He also spent several years in executive roles for three telecommunications companies: MetroNet Communications (later purchased by AT&T Canada); TELUS Advanced Communications and GT Group Telecom.