GGRAsia – Macau weakness NagaCorp’s opportunity: firm

Macau weakness NagaCorp’s opportunity: firm

Sep 16, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

The continued downturn in the gaming sector in Macau “offers opportunities” for Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp Ltd “to further penetrate the regional and Chinese gaming market,” the firm said in its interim report filed in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

In its first half results, announced in August, NagaCorp said VIP rolling chip turnover at the company’s flagship NagaWorld property (pictured) in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, jumped 50 percent from a year earlier to about US$3.6 billion.

“The group offers better commercial terms to junket operators and agents as a result of NagaWorld’s low cost structure. The group has signed additional North Asian junkets who are seeking to diversify their operations to other parts of Asia,” the company said in Tuesday’s report.

It added: “The group intends to improve its margins as it captures a larger share of the Asian VIP gaming market.”

The interim report additionally confirmed that NagaCity Walk, a shopping complex it is constructing next to NagaWorld, is scheduled for physical completion by the first quarter of 2016, with operations due to start by the third quarter of 2016.

The latest filing added that the company’s planned casino project in the Primorye Integrated Entertainment Zone near Vladivostok in the Russian Far East should “commence operation not later than 2018”. The firm broke ground on the scheme in May.