Casino investor Landing Intl 1H net loss widens

Aug 26, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Landing International Development Ltd – a Hong Kong-listed firm involved in developing a new casino resort in Jeju Island, South Korea – saw its net loss widen in the first half of 2015.

The loss in the six months to June 30 was HKD143.91 million (US$18.6 million), compared to approximately HKD129.72 million in the year-prior period, it reported on Tuesday.

The firm also has an investment in an existing casino hotel on Jeju, the Hyatt Regency Jeju Hotel (pictured), operated by Grand Express Korea Co Ltd.

Landing International Development said its share of profit from Hyatt Regency Jeju for the period was approximately HKD24.46 million. The property was reopened in January after being closed for renovation since mid-October.

In July, Genting Hong Kong Ltd – an investor in casino cruise ships and land-based casino operations in Asia – said it was selling its own indirectly-held equity interest in the casino business of the Hyatt Regency Jeju Hotel to Landing International Development for a consideration of KRW130 billion (US$111.1 million).

Regarding the new Jeju gaming project – a collaboration with Singapore casino operator Genting Singapore Plc – Landing International Development said it was confident it would be “well built and managed by a quality and experienced management team”.

The scheme is referred to by Landing International Development as the “Myth-History Park project”. The developers broke ground in February and obtained building permits from the Jeju government during the reporting period. In February it was described as a US$1.8-billion scheme.

Landing Jeju Development Co Ltd – a direct wholly owned subsidiary holding the Jeju Project – is working on the scheme with Happy Bay Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Genting Singapore.

Landing International Development said in its Tuesday filing that as well as sharing costs with Genting Singapore on the project, it expected the scheme to benefit from the “successful experiences and expertise of the Genting Singapore group in the management of the gaming and integrated resort development”. Genting Singapore developed and operates the Resorts World Sentosa casino resort in Singapore.

On July 17, Landing International Development announced the results of a rights subscription offer toward its portion of the capital costs for the new Jeju casino project. It said that the exercise raised HKD4.16 billion, adding that 63.6 percent of the approximately 18.7 billion subscription rights shares at HKD0.35 each had been taken up by investors.

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