The share price of Hong Kong-listed Macau casino services firm Macau Legend Development Ltd closed 19.3 percent lower on Monday, following the arrest of the firm’s largest shareholder, Levo Chan Weng Lin.
The stock ended the trading day at HKD0.46 (US$ 0.05899), down HKD0.11.
Following the closing of trading, Macau Legend announced that Mr Chan had “tendered his resignation as an executive director, the co-chairman of the board and the chief executive of the company with effect from January 31.”
The firm said in a filing the move was “to avoid distraction to the company, and in the “interest of the shareholders of the company as a whole”.
Macau Legend oversees a number of Macau casinos under the licence of SJM Holdings Ltd, and several hotels and leisure facilities at Macau Fisherman’s Wharf.
Daily trading in Hong Kong ended at lunchtime on Monday, as it was the eve of Chinese New Year.
On Sunday, Macau’s Judiciary Police had said Mr Chan, also boss of Macau junket brand Tak Chun, had been detained on Friday on suspicion of illicit gambling activities, formation of a criminal syndicate and money laundering.
Mr Chan has been placed in custody and transferred to the Correctional Services Bureau’s prison facility at Coloane in Macau, said Macau’s public broadcaster TDM and other news outlets, citing sources they did not identify.
Macau Legend had said in a Sunday filing that, “as the group is operated by a team of management personnel” and the arrest of Mr Chan was related to his “personal affairs”, it did not expect the “incident to have a material adverse impact” on its daily operations.
In its follow-up filing on Monday, Macau Legend expressed its “gratitude and appreciation to Mr Chan for his contributions to the company during his tenure of services.”
