Inside Asian Gaming

September 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 35 48 (-) Hyung Joo Kim Founder and CEO, Intercity Group machines; hotels offering a total of 1,500 rooms; a world-class 18-hole golf course; a water park; shopping malls, plus a culture and entertainment centre. The groundwork and road construction for the site began in March this year and building construction is expected to start in December. Intercity says that while revenue from the gaming operation is central to the business plan for the project, it also spotted a gap in the market for a high quality all- round holiday resort. It says that although the local service centre town Siem Reap has a range of international quality hotels, it lacks entertainment and nightlife venues. The company thinks that even accounting for the existing upward trend in the number of visitors to AngkorWat, its resort will bring in even more new visitors. It estimates three million visitors will be coming to the area annually by the end of 2011. Mr Kim is a developer with a clear practical vision for how Bellus Angkor Resort & City will look and function. He studied architecture at theprestigious Seoul National University and later furthered his studies in the US at the University of Michigan, where he received a Masters in Architecture. He has worked in Korea and internationally as an architect. In order to pursue a career as a developer, he then went on to obtain an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Early on in his career, he recognised the potential of Southeast Asia. He spent several years involved in the Vietnam real estate market—an experience that he believes played a vital role in helping him obtain this opportunity in Cambodia. Hyung Joo Kim is the founder and CEO of Intercity Group (ICG), a South Korean real estate development company. Mr Kim enters this year’s list thanks to Intercity winning a sole concession from the Cambodian government in October 2008 to build a gaming resort near Cambodia’s tourism hot spot Angkor Wat. Bellus Angkor Resort & City (BARC) will cost US$470 million and the first phase is due to open in 2011. The developers had initially hoped to get the project ready for 2010, but the global recession necessitated a change of plans. The scheme will be on a 265-hectare site 20 kilometres north of the temple complex at Angkor Archaeological Park and about the same distance from Siem Reap International Airport, which lies to the west of the temples. Around two million tourists visit the area annually via the airport—representing around two thirds of all the foreign visitors to the country each year. Facilities at the resort will include: a casino with 200 tables and 1,000 slot Asian Gaming 50 – 2009 49 (45) Leonard H. Ainsworth Executive Chairman, Ainsworth Game Technology told the Sydney Morning Herald in an interview earlier this year. Even post credit crisis, Mr Ainsworth has been estimated to be worth A$835 million (US$710.2 million) and was recently named Australia’s 34th richest person. Mr Ainsworth’s money comes from the family’s (now non-voting) share in Aristocrat and money made in the recent past from Ainsworth Game Technology, the rival slot maker he set up in the mid-1990s. Mr Ainsworth has plenty to think about when it comes to disbursing his fortune and deciding what to do with his business. He’s alreadyhadexperienceof thedifficulties this can cause. In an earlier brush with mortality in 1994, Mr Ainsworth was diagnosed with prostate cancer. As a result he portioned off his shares in Aristocrat to his family. But after he was given the all clear from cancer shortly afterwards, he decided against retirement. In 1995 he founded Ainsworth Game Technology as a rival to Aristocrat. So far the venture hasn’t hit the same heights as Aristocrat, but to be fair the Australian and international slot markets are far more crowded with rival suppliers now than when Mr Ainsworth started out in 1954. As part of his succession planning, this year Mr Ainsworth extended the maturity on a A$40 million loan to Ainsworth Game Technology, to a date four years from the day he dies. He has also changed the redemption date on the company’s A$25.6 million in bonds due to mature this December by two years, with the option to extend for another three. As a sweetener, the 8% coupon will rise to 10% on 1st January 2010. Mr Ainsworth reportedly owns about 60% of the notes and is the company’s principal source of funding. Extending the maturity on the loan and the redemption on the bonds prevents any of his family from taking legal action to divert the money from the company, though family members indicated recently they would respect Mr Ainsworth’s wishes without the need for litigation. SJM isn’t the only company thinking about the issue of succession planning in 2009. Len Ainsworth, aged 86, a founder of a company that was the precursor to Aristocrat Leisure, has been dealing with the issue in typically earthy Australian fashion. “Once you’re in a box you don’t know what’s happening, do you?” Mr Ainsworth