Loan helps Casablanca Casino get full compliance: promoter

Apr 25, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck  

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Australia-listed casino investor Frontier Capital Group Ltd said in a Wednesday filing it was “now in full compliance” with requirements for reopening its Casablanca Casino (pictured) in the Philippines and is “preparing” to do so.

In a March filing the firm said it had found the money needed to restart – on an “imminent” basis – operations at the Casablanca Casino, a gaming facility in the Clark Freeport Zone, in the Philippines.

According to previous company filings to the Australian Securities Exchange, gaming operations at the venue had been suspended from the first quarter 2016, as the company had been required by the casino regulator in the Philippines – the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) – to settle an escrow account in the amount of PHP225 million (US$4.3 million at current exchange rates).

In Wednesday’s filing Frontier Capital stated: “On 1 November 2018 the company secured a US$10 million unsecured loan – with no fixed term and a coupon rate of 15 percent per annum – to meet the requirements of Pagcor for the escrow account, performance assurance and surety bonds to enable recommencement of the casino operations.”

The Stotsenberg Leisure Park Hotel associated with the Casablanca Casino “has been operating throughout the period,” noted the firm in its Wednesday update.

The filing that day was to outline the group’s business performance for the six months ended 30 June 2017. The document indicated the firm had shown a profit of AUD1.06 million (US$737,244) compared to a loss of AUD8.69 million in the same period a year earlier.

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