Casino investor LET Group Holdings Ltd expects to record “a net loss of approximately HKD9 million” (US$1.2 million) from the dissolution of Gold Yield Enterprises Ltd, a joint venture company 50-percent owned by a unit of LET Group. The dissolution of Gold Yield Enterprises was “effective on 9 December 2024,” according to a Thursday filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The net loss took into account the remaining assets distributed equally to the joint venture partners, and other losses arising from the dissolution, said LET Group.
Gold Yield Enterprises had previously been identified as a firm principally engaged in the Hoiana casino resort project in Vietnam.
Trading in LET Group shares in Hong Kong – as well as of shares of its subsidiary Summit Ascent Holdings Ltd – has been suspended since February last year. Summit Ascent ultimately controls the Tigre de Cristal casino resort in Vladivostok, Russia.
In Thursday’s filing, LET Group said the hotel and gaming business operations of Tigre de Cristal “continue to face significant challenges and uncertainties due to the ongoing and escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict, along with the associated sanctions levied against Russia”.
The parent company gave no further updates regarding the plan to sell its casino operations in Russia. Shareholders of LET Group approved in August a proposal to dispose of the group’s investment in the Tigre de Cristal complex.
LET Group has faced regulatory compliance challenges since January 2024, following the departure of several board members after an attempted sale of the Tigre de Cristal casino licence in Vladivostok, Russia. In November, two independent non-executive directors – people who had resigned once then come back – once again resigned from the firm’s board.
The casino investor had previously said it intended to focus its resources in the Philippines market, where the group is developing – via a subsidiary – the “main hotel casino” at Westside City in the Philippine capital Manila.
In its latest announcement, the parent company said additional contractors were “expected to be appointed in due course to facilitate the anticipated opening of the main hotel casino in 2025”.
Suntrust Resort Holdings Inc, the unit developing the Manila project, said in November it expected to start operations at the main hotel casino “in the fourth quarter of 2025”.
Previously, the company had flagged a first-quarter start for its operations.
LET Group also said on Thursday that it was “actively seeking opportunities” to divest its non-core business of property development in Niseko and Miyako Island in Japan.
It said the decision to sell those assets was a “strategic move intended to enhance the group’s cash flow”. The company said “no buyer has been secured as of yet”.
