GGRAsia – Landing Intl still can’t reach chairman: firm

Landing Intl still can’t reach chairman: firm

Sep 11, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Casino resort investor Landing International Development Ltd says it still can’t reach the firm’s chairman, Yang Zhihui. The Hong Kong-listed firm said in an August filing that it had been “unable to contact or reach” Mr Yang since August 23.

“There is still no update on Mr Yang’s whereabouts,” a spokesperson from Landing International said on Monday in an emailed reply to GGRAsia.

In August’s filing, the company gave no reasoning for its assertion that the absence of Mr Yang would be temporary. Mr Yang owns 50.48 percent of the total issued share capital of Landing International via a wholly-owned company, according to latest available record from the Hong Kong bourse.

The shares of Landing International – which currently operates a casino resort complex in the South Korean island of Jeju – closed at HKD2.86 (US$0.36) apiece on Monday, down 9.8 percent from HKD3.17 per share after resuming trading on August 24. The company had requested suspension of its shares in the morning of August 23, after they lost 35 percent of their value in the first 90 minutes of daily trading.

The company has lost 52 percent of its value since August 21 and now has a market capitalisation of about HKD8.39 billion.

In February Landing International opened a foreigner-only casino at its Jeju Shinhwa World resort on Jeju. The firm plans to open a self-branded hotel at the Jeju casino resort complex under the moniker Shinhwa Resort within this year. By 2020, it also aims to open a Four Seasons Resort and Spa, and a theme park called Lionsgate Movie World, according to the firm’s previous statements.

The Hong Kong-listed company is also pursuing a casino resort project in Manila in the Philippines. But the Philippine presidential spokesperson was quoted by local media earlier this month as saying that the land lease contract for the project would be “cancelled”, casting doubts over the project. Landing International said at the time that it would be seeking further clarification, but the firm said previously that its land lease was valid, vowing to press on with its casino resort project.

Landing International has said it intends to build a US$1.5-billion casino resort and theme park, to be called NayonLanding, on the site in question. It hopes to complete the project in 2022.