GGRAsia – Donaco rejigs payback on US$7mln still owed Mega Bank

Donaco rejigs payback on US$7mln still owed Mega Bank

Jul 01, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Donaco International Ltd, an operator of several border casinos in Southeast Asia, says it has gained approval from key lender Mega International Commercial Bank Co Ltd, to reschedule repayment of the outstanding money Donaco owes the institution. The repayment is being done via six monthly instalments of US$1 million each, between June and November, plus a final payment of US$1.8 million in December.

With the June payment already made, then as of June 30, Donaco owed the institution – also known as Mega Bank – the sum of US$6.8 million, out of the initial circa US$100 million it had borrowed in Australian dollars, and had been repaying since 2015, the casino firm said in a Thursday filing to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Star Vegas Resort and Club (pictured in a file photo), Donaco’s flagship casino resort in Poipet, on Cambodia’s border with Thailand, has been closed since April, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Donaco’s non-executive chairman, Porntat Amatavivadhana, was cited as saying in Thursday’s filing, that while the public health situation was “outside of our control,” the firm had “acted according to what was mandated by the Cambodian government with the temporary closure of all casinos in the region, including Star Vegas.”

The chairman added: “The continued safety of our staff and visitors remains paramount and we will advise the market once there is any further update.”

Thursday’s filing also noted that the Donaco board had approved a shareholder loan of up to US$8.2 million from Lee Bug Huy, also known as Techatut Sukcharoenkraisri, the firm’s chief executive and an executive director.

That loan is repayable over the next three years, “on terms that are materially the same as those of the Mega Bank facility,” stated Donaco.

It added the firm intended to repay the shareholder loan from operational cash flow, within the loan term.

Donaco also said it had received a waiver in relation to the default interest and financial covenants of the Mega Bank facility.

The gaming firm also runs the Aristo International Hotel, a casino hotel in Lao Cai, on Vietnam’s border with China.