GGRAsia – Macau Legend jet sale for US$1.3mln to David Chow wife, son

Macau Legend jet sale for US$1.3mln to David Chow wife, son

Jan 04, 2022 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

A firm controlled by the wife and a son of David Chow Kam Fai, the founder of casino services group Macau Legend Development Co Ltd, has acquired for HKD10 million (US$1.28 million) a business jet owned by a unit of Macau Legend.

Donald Chow Wan Hok and his mother Melinda Chan Mei Yi, the latter an executive director of Macau Legend, completed the acquisition on December 31, via Macau-registered Arcwealth Global Investment and Management Ltd.

Mr Donald Chow, a former executive director of Macau Legend, controls 90 percent of Arcwealth, and his mother 10 percent, according to a previous filing by Macau Legend to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The aircraft had been owned by Macau Fisherman’s Wharf International Investment Ltd.

The plane, an Embraer Legacy 600, was described in an October 25 filing by Macau Legend, as “one of the oldest aircraft models” in that series from the maker, and subject to “technological obsolescence”.

The filing of that date said that due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the aircraft was of “little” use to Macau Legend, “while the disposal can help improve liquidity of the group”.

That same announcement had said a guide price for an aircraft of that type was HKD31 million, but that due to damage related to Typhoon Hato in 2017, that particular plane had been subject of a HKD12-million insurance claim. The HKD10-million consideration accruing to Macau Legend from the disposal is on a pre-tax basis, the firm said.

Macau Legend runs a number of casinos inside Macau hotels, via so-called service agreements with an existing Macau gaming concessionaire, SJM Holdings Ltd. The group also has an investment in the Macau Fisherman’s Wharf complex on Macau peninsula, and controls a casino resort in Laos.

Mr David Chow, a co-chairman, executive director, and shareholder in Macau Legend, conducted in autumn 2020 a major sell-down in his interest in the business. It coincided with Levo Chan, boss of Macau junket brand Tak Chun, taking a 20.65-percent stake in Macau Legend.