GGRAsia – Banyan Tree to get Vietnam casino permit: report

Banyan Tree to get Vietnam casino permit: report

Jul 28, 2014 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Singapore-listed hotel and resort developer Banyan Tree Holdings Ltd is to be granted a casino licence for Laguna Lăng Cô beach resort (pictured) on the central coast of Vietnam. That’s according to Vietnamnet, an English-language Vietnamese media outlet, quoting Vietnam Investment Review.

The source of the report is said to be the People’s Committee in Thừa Thiên–Huế province, which is quoted as saying that Ho Kwon Ping, executive chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings is to be granted approval for the gaming facility.

GGRAsia on Monday afternoon sent an e-mail to Banyan Tree Holdings seeking confirmation of Banyan Tree’s interest in the project, and the report of the casino licence, but no reply was available at the time we published this story.

In an e-mailed reply on Monday evening from the management at Laguna Lăng Cô, a spokeswoman told GGRAsia: “As these are very early and preliminary stages of the project and application for this licence is a long-term process, there are not yet any concrete details about this project.”

Laguna Lăng Cô’s website says in a press release dated June 18, 2012, that phase one of the project represented “a US$200 million investment funded through the Banyan Tree Indochina Hospitality Fund, the first real estate investment fund established by the [Banyan Tree] Group in 2008…”

The website describes the project as a 280-hectare (316-acre) resort. It has a Banyan Tree Lăng Cô-branded hotel and an 18-hole golf course.

(Updated at 20:45pm)