GGRAsia – Imp Pacific gets 2021 deadline on Saipan casino resort

Imp Pacific gets 2021 deadline on Saipan casino resort

Aug 31, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd has been granted another deadline extension, this time until February 28, 2021, to complete the initial phase of its casino resort (pictured) on the Pacific island of Saipan, reported local media on Friday.

The previous deadline had expired on August 31, with no prospect of being met.

Under amended terms to its monopoly casino licence – agreed after a Friday meeting with the local regulator, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Lottery Commission – Imperial Pacific will pay a fine of US$5,000 a day if it fails to meet the new deadline. That is according to the Marianas Variety newspaper, a local media outlet in the United States jurisdiction.

Under the fresh agreement, the company also pledged – in exchange for the more than three-and-a-half-years of leeway – to donate US$500,000 to a body called the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp, for the purchase of medical equipment, reported the newspaper.

In its interim results filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday, Imperial Pacific said it was “in discussion with other potential investors to secure long-term financing for the remaining construction of the integrated gaming resort”.

Profit at Imperial Pacific plummeted 91.3 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2018.

VIP table games rolling – accounting for most of Imperial Pacific’s casino business – nearly halved year-on-year in the first six months.