Inside Asian Gaming

September 2015 inside asian gaming 35 it provides its VIP clients, Neptune has begun to exert a sizable impact on the bigger picture, notably launching two of the flashiest high- stakes poker tournaments in the world. Mr Niglio’s presence as the only non- Chinese member of the board of directors of Neptune Group speaks volumes to the esteem in which he is held in Macau and Hong Kong by players, operators and investors. With three decades of experience on two continents to his credit, Mr Niglio is charged with heading Neptune’s strategy of “continued controlled growth”. He was schooled in the hyper-competitive world of Atlantic City gambling in its heyday, joining Resorts International in administration in 1978 and moving into casino marketing. He served as vice president of casino operations at Caesars, the city’s pre- eminent high-roller venue of the time, and was senior vice president of Eastern Operations before moving to the Trump casinos in the early ’90s, where at various times over an eight- year career he headed up every facet of domestic and international marketing. Mr Niglio joined Neptune as an executive director in September 2007, shortly after the listed entity was created out of an existing Hong Kong-listed company called Massive Resources International Corp., which previously traded electrical equipment and securities. Neptune thus became the first Macau junket operator to gain access to Hong Kong’s stock market via a backdoor listing, a trend that picked up this year with First Natural Food Holdings’ HK$400 million (US$51 million) investment in Hengsheng Group in March and Macau junketeer Jack Lam’s purchase, along with two British Virgin Islands entities, of 66% of Sinogreen Energy International Group for HK$113.8 million, setting the stage for the listed company’s absorption of part of Mr Lam’s Jimei Group. James Packer’s decision to step down as chairman of Crown Resorts to focus on the billions the company has on the table in planned resorts in Macau, Las Vegas and Sydney will likely free up his second-in-command, Rowen Craigie, to concentrate on maintaining Crown’s position as Australia’s premier gaming operator. That won’t be easy, with a rejuvenated Echo Entertainment on his heels, but the industry veteran has a decade of success Down Under to his credit and a couple of marquee destinations to work with in Melbourne and Perth, both of which have been significantly enhanced over the last few years and will only get better in the next few. The latest financial year saw the downturn in Macau take a big bite out of the value of the company’s 34% stake in Melco Crown Entertainment. This wasn’t unexpected. It was fairly severe, nonetheless—a 44.6% decline in Crown’s share of MCE’s adjusted net profit. Charges related to the company’s stake in US gaming operator Cannery Resorts, combined with the write-off of its abortive resort plans in Sri Lanka, subtracted another A$61.3 million. In all, the bottom line corporate-wide was down an adjusted 17.9%. On top of this, and perhaps much to Crown’s surprise, the company lost out to Echo in the bidding for a $1 billion resort in Brisbane. None of this has done wonders for Crown’s ASX-listed stock, which has been trading at or near 52-week lows, and the investment Rowen Craigie Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Crown Resorts community has been making noises about leverage. Corporate net debt stood at $2.46 billion as of 30th June, most of it, of course, stemming from Mr Packer’s global ambitions. Which is where Mr Craigie comes in. The company must continue to deliver operationally at home. And, to date, it has. It was a $3.2 billion year for Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth, and in this respect, Macau’s travails have been anything but a complete loss. FY2015 saw VIP turnover at the two resorts surge 41.8% year on year to generate a combined $955.9 million in revenue. The take on the main floors overcame softness in Western Australia’s resource-driven economy to register a creditable 5.5% increase to