Incheon city, China’s Macrolink in Korea casino bid

Jun 10, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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The city government in Incheon, South Korea, and China’s Macrolink Group Ltd are to bid jointly for a casino resort development licence there, a municipal official told Reuters on Tuesday. Macrolink Real Estate Co Ltd signed the deal on behalf of the Macrolink Group, the official said.

Macrolink Group, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in mining, real estate, financial investment and other businesses. It develops real estate projects in several provinces of mainland China.

The concept for the casino resort in Incheon would be submitted by the end of June, the official told the media outlet. The size of the investment is yet to be decided, the person added.

The bid is set to intensify competition for a casino licence for the Incheon area. Incheon city, South Korea’s third most populous city, is just 27 kilometres (16.7 miles) away from the capital Seoul.

Casino operators have shown interest in investing in either Jeju Island – popular with mainland Chinese holidaymakers – or near the Incheon International Airport (pictured). The operators include Genting Singapore Plc, Caesars Entertainment Corp and Philippines-based Bloomberry Resorts Corp.

In April, U.S. regional tribal casino operator Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, known as Mohegan Sun, and South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corp (IIAC) announced an agreement to develop a casino resort next to the airport itself.

The planned casino resort – subject to Mohegan Sun securing a gaming licence from South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism – will include an 18,500 square metre (199,132 sq feet) casino with 250 tables and 1,500 slot machines.

South Korea’s national government plans to approve two more foreigners-ly casino licences this year to boost tourism. Operators are expected to pledge at least KRW1 trillion (US$891.5 million) in investment for proposals to be eligible.

In a report published in late April, Fitch Ratings Inc said it had a “cautious view” on the South Korean casino industry’s foreigners-only venues in the light of likely competition from new or improved overseas properties. The country has 17 casinos but 16 of them are for foreigners-only.

In the short term, South Korea’s inbound tourism industry is facing some challenges due to an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Japanese brokerage Nomura said in a note on Tuesday.

The country’s official Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday reported the South Korean government giving the latest death toll from MERS as nine, with 108 cases of infection in total.

MERS is said to be from the same family of coronavirus that caused 2003’s outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Asia.

“The Korea Tourism Organization has said that in the first week of June more than 45,000 foreign travellers cancelled their plans. During the SARS outbreak in 2003 the number of overseas visitors to South Korea fell by 11 percent year-on-year and the fall in purchases by foreign visitors (17 percent) shaved 0.1 percentage point (off annual real GDP [gross domestic product] growth in 2003),” wrote Nomura analyst Young Sun Kwon.

On Tuesday, the Hong Kong government issued a red travel warning, its second-highest alert, to its residents regarding travel to South Korea. Also on Tuesday, the Macau government issued its third-highest alert regarding travel to South Korea, but mainland China has not yet issued a travel warning to its residents.

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