Inside Asian Gaming

pots in the world. Meanwhile, the Suncity- owned e.travellers magazine and UO Macau— the leading Web site for Chinese visitors to Macau—aim to lure visitors to the city. Although many of Mr Chau’s non- gaming investments support Suncity’s core activities, others have larger standalone aspirations. Sun Entertainment Group, set up in 2008, has financed and produced a string of big-budget films, including the blockbusters “Vulgaria” and “Love in Time.” One of the group’s greatest innovations in securing the loyalty of its customers is the Suncity Card, which not only offers points redeemable for retail, dining and entertainment purchases around Macau but also delivers discounts and other privileges. By swiping their cards at one of several conveniently located Suncity BTM Card kiosks, members can also access detailed records of their gaming activities and other spending and credit amounts they are entitled to at specific venues. Members can also avail themselves of an exclusive 24-hour concierge service. Mr Chau has sought to further broaden the Suncity brand by making acquisitions in finance, media, real estate and health and beauty across Hong Kong, Macau and China. Other interests include the development, marketing and production of software and an iron mine in Indonesia. The company has two listed arms, Sun International Resources Limited and Sun Century Group Limited, and stresses its intention to continue diversifying into other sectors. The sharp-dressed Mr Chau embodies the Suncity high-roller lifestyle, often pictured at elite parties in Chinese-language tabloids. But he’s known to work harder than he plays, and his professional achievements are widely recognized. Earlier this year, he was appointed to the Guangdong provincial committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s parliamentary advisory body. Such appointments are generally reserved for senior business leaders in China. The Asian Gaming 50 – 2013 Crown Limited wants to change its name to Crown Resorts, the better to reflect “the large investment Crown has made in its tourism infrastructure” and its “expanding domestic and global investments”—which, as rebrandings go, matches up nicely with Executive Chairman James Packer’s transition from lucky gene pool member to bonafide tycoon. At 46, he is Australia’s third-richest person, a billionaire six times over, with the eye of a world-class investor and holdings in gaming, media and theWeb that span four continents The decision on the name will be made by Crown’s shareholders next month. Of course, it’s expected they’ll concur. If Mr Packer’s skillful dismantling of rival Echo Entertainment’s casino monopoly in Sydney has taught us anything, it’s that his ability to get what he wants is as irresistible as his father’s and grandfather’s. And he expects to replicate the feat in Queensland, where Echo’s status as sole operator in Brisbane hangs by a thread and investors as far afield as Malaysia and Hong Kong are looking to cash in Down Under on the wanderlust of China’s high-rolling millions. As the competition for them accelerates across Australia it will be surprising if it’s not James Packer who ends up at the wheel. Crown currently is generating operating cash flow in the neighborhood of A$500 million. In the last year the company realized adjusted EBITDA of $758 million, a 5% 8 James Packer Executive Chairman, Crown Limited Co-Chairman Melco Crown Entertainment increase, on $2.77 billion of revenue gleaned from casinos in Australia, Macau, the UK and the US. The core of those earnings are being generated in the most challenging operating environment of the four by the company’s flagship Crown Melbourne—a destination- scale 1,600-room resort that generated nearly $39 billion in VIP turnover during the year, a 9% increase—and Crown Perth in the capital of Western Australia, where a major remodeling and expansion campaign is under way, highlighted by a new 500-room luxury hotel slated to open in 2016 with an array of restaurants, bars, leisure and MICE facilities and sizable high-end gaming space. Needless to say, what he’s planning for Darling Harbour at a projected cost of $1.5 billion will be on a grander scale than either. That’s several years away, as we know, but that isn’t a bad thing given the money that keeps pouring in from the Chinese in Macau, where Crown’s 33.7% stake in Hong Kong- and New York-listed Melco Crown Entertainment delivered A$152.3 million in profit after adjusting for hold. Mr Packer is co-chairman of MCE and Crown owns 60%of its US$2.9 billion Studio City IR scheduled to open on Cotai in 2015 with 2,000 hotel rooms, 400 table games and 1,000 slot machines. He’ll be counting another tidy pile of cash starting next year when MCE opens its US$1.3 billion joint venture IR at Manila’s Entertainment City with a planned 1,092 hotel rooms, 1,900 machine games and 350 tables. In the UK, where Crown owns 40% of new-style operator Aspers, the company’s VIP casino in London, previously the famed Aspinall’s Club, generated the equivalent of A$33.3 million in normalized EBITDA. In the US, Crown owns 24.5% of Cannery Casino Resorts, which operates locals venues in Las Vegas and Pennsylvania. Then there’s Sri Lanka, whose government has begun to entertain ideas of becoming the Indian Macau and where in one of Mr Packer’s cagiest moves to date Crown has secured approval for a US$350 million joint venture gaming resort in the capital of Colombo. He has, as one financial blogger says of him, “a knack for discovering investments primed to pay juicy dividends,” and he’s also cast a roving eye toward the Internet, where Crown has owned a 50% stake in the Australian arm of Betfair, the world’s largest online betting exchange, for some time. Not content with that, he’s moved beyond the gaming space with investments in deals sites Scoopon and Catch of the Day and ASX- listed dot-com Carsales. More recently, he sold his stake in ASX-listed job site SEEK to take a significant interest in US-listed Zillow, a kind of real estate version of Expedia which he’s no doubt familiar with from Australia’s $5 billion REA Group, owner of realestate. com.au. Zillow, reported to have 6 million unique users, has taken off with investors in the States and had a market cap, as of this writing, of US$3.8 billion. 18 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | September 2013