Inside Asian Gaming

DECEMBER 2017 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 69 ASIAN GAMING POWER 50 2 0 1 7 Success Universe Group’s Macau flagship, Ponte 16, found that its greatest point of difference was also its Achilles’ heel in 2017 as Typhoon Hato devastated its main gaming floor. Ponte 16 – under normal circumstances at least – benefits from some unique geography. As the only casino alongside the city’s historic Inner Harbour it’s got a sizable footprint, 2.3 hectares in all, which provides space for a more expansive offering than the run of its peers on the Macau peninsula: an outdoor pool, a fitness center and sauna, a L’Occitane-branded spa, nine restaurants, cafés and lounges and seven multi-purpose meeting rooms. But that same location saw it right in the firing line of Typhoon Hato, forcing the closure of the casino for a number of weeks afterwards and crippling an already under pressure business. Just a week after Typhoon Hato, and completely unrelated, Success Universe reported a loss of HK$23.3 million for the first six months of 2017, having previously reported a HK$15.7 million loss in 1H16. The company attributed its financial struggles to “the challenges and intensive competition driven by new supply of hotel Sonny Yeung EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CHAIRMAN Success Universe Group POWER 534 LAST 43 SCORE YEAR CLAIMS TO FAME Operations and marketing innovator behind Ponte 16 50 rooms and gaming tables” in Macau, namely in Cotai where much of the Peninsula’s former flow now resides. It would be a shame, though, if Ponte 16 can’t rediscover its mojo, with Hong Kong financier Sonny Yeung and his Success Universe Group having built a property vastly different from the many other casinos that operate as independent contractors under the SJM concession, with their focus on gambling and little else.