GGRAsia – Landing boss says would-be receivers got his notice to sue

Landing boss says would-be receivers got his notice to sue

Jan 08, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

The chairman and controller of Hong Kong-listed casino developer Landing International Development Ltd has confirmed via a company filing that would-be receivers – representing outside interests – had confirmed getting notice of a civil lawsuit he plans against them.

The Tuesday regulatory announcement said Chinese entrepreneur Yang Zhihui – sole shareholder of an offshore entity called Landing International Ltd that is the group’s ultimate holding vehicle – had “informed the company that the receivers have acknowledged the service of the writ of summons, and other than that, there is no further progress in relation to the appointments of the receivers and such writ of summons”.

Landing International Development created a resort with foreigner-only casino, called Jeju Shinhwa World, on South Korea’s Jeju Island. The gaming portion of the facility – Landing Casino – opened in February 2018.

On November 5, the listed entity said in a filing it had become aware two people were asserting receivership rights over a majority of the stock in Landing International Ltd, a British Virgin Islands entity.

According to a separate and unrelated filing to the Hong Kong bourse, the people named as would-be receivers for Landing International Ltd stock are identified as representatives of financial services firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLC.

In late August 2018, Landing International Development revealed in a filing it had lost contact with its chairman Mr Yang. An image circulating online the same day, showed a person resembling Mr Yang airside on an airport’s tarmac, being escorted in handcuffs by two men.

It was not until late November that year that the group reported Mr Yang was back at work. The latter filing said Mr Yang had explained to the board that he had been “assisting a relevant department of the People’s Republic of China with an investigation during the period of his absence”.

In August last year, Landing International Development reported a net loss of nearly HKD835.6 million (US$107.5 million) for the first six months of 2019, as gaming revenue for the period declined sharply.