GGRAsia – Tak Chun CEO ups to 33pct of Macau Legend, joins board

Tak Chun CEO ups to 33pct of Macau Legend, joins board

Nov 25, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Interests controlled by Macau casino junket boss Levo Chan Weng Lin (pictured) now hold 33.19 percent of Hong Kong-listed casino services firm Macau Legend Development Ltd after the closure on Tuesday of a HKD809.8 million (US$104.5 million) compulsory offer – in cash – for shares of Macau Legend under Hong Kong’s Takeovers Code.

As had been flagged before the offer, a Tuesday filing to the Hong Kong bourse confirmed that following the exercise, Mr Chan, chief executive of junket firm Tak Chun Group; and Tsang Ka Hung, Tak Chun’s chief financial officer (CFO), join the Macau Legend board. Mr Chan has been appointed as executive director and co-chairman of Macau Legend; Mr Tsang will serve as the latter’s executive director and CFO.

Macau Legend runs three casinos in Macau – Landmark, Babylon and Legend Palace – under a so-called services agreement with Macau licensee SJM Holdings Ltd. Macau Legend also has a tourism complex called Macau Fisherman’s Wharf, a waterfront area close to the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal on Macau peninsula.

The firm has additionally invested in a Laos casino resort.

The cash consideration was based on valid acceptances in respect of just over 771.2 million offer shares at HKD1.05 per unit, representing 12.44 percent of the total issued share capital of Macau Legend.

David Chow Kam Fai, an executive director and the co-chairman of the board and one of Macau Legend’s founders, has been redesignated as a non-executive director, following the closure of the offer, but remains as co-chairman of the board.

The latest date for posting of remittances in respect of valid acceptances received under the offer is December 3.

Subsequent to the offer, 22.48 percent of the total issued share capital are held by the public.

The firm had said in a supplemental prospectus on June 26, 2013, that the company had applied for, and been granted, a waiver from strict compliance with the Hong Kong exchange’s minimum public float requirement of 25 percent and accepted a lower percentage of 19.04 percent at the time an earlier major offer of its shares had been listed.

On September 11 this year, an entity controlled by Tak Chun’s CEO had acquired a 20.65-percent stake in Macau Legend.

The purchase price was HKD1.05 per share, for just above 1.28 billion shares, representing a consideration of HKD1.34 billion, or about US$173.4 million.

According to the information filed on September 11, Mr Chan already previously owned – personally – a 0.11 percent stake in Macau Legend, so that exercise took his stake to 20.75 percent, prior to completion of the latest offer.