Nepal Tiger Palace casino awaits licence for opening: firm

Nov 30, 2017 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Boutique Asian casino operator and developer Silver Heritage Group Ltd says it is waiting for regulatory approval in order to open the casino at its Tiger Palace Resort Bhairahawa (pictured), a new Nepal property near the country’s border with the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

The firm had stated late last month that Tiger Palace remained “on budget [for completion] at less than the revised budget amount of US$51.8 million, and for the casino to open by November 30”.

In a Wednesday filing, Silver Heritage said that – following the award of five-star rating to Tiger Palace’s hotel – the company now had “the documentation required to lodge the application to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation of Nepal for its existing licensed casino management company, SHL Management Services (KTM) Private Ltd, to operate the casino at Tiger Palace.”

The latest filing added: “Tiger Palace… will be ready to commence gaming operations at the resort’s casino following the processing of the application, at which time the company will make a further announcement.”

No tentative schedule for the casino opening was mentioned in the filing.

A soft opening of the property’s hotel facilities, offering 100 rooms, was held on September 20.

Silver Heritage runs the Millionaire’s Club and Casino in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, and the Phoenix International Club, near Hanoi, in Vietnam.

The firm hinted in a September business update that it had identified another site in Nepal for a potential second new resort following the opening of Tiger Palace. According to that company update, the second site would be further east, near Nepal’s border with the Indian states of Bihar and Sikkim, and a relatively short distance from India’s contiguous border with Bangladesh.

Silver Heritage stated in its Wednesday release that wholly owned subsidiary Tiger One Pvt Ltd had signed a supplementary agreement with a Nepalese banking syndicate extending its demand loan facility from a maximum of NPR150 million (approximately US$1.5 million) to a maximum of NPR280 million. As at Wednesday, none of the demand loan facility had been utilised, Silver Heritage said.

“This [demand loan facility extension] will provide the company with increased flexibility in managing its financial affairs during the opening of Tiger Palace and over the first few months of its operations,” Silver Heritage noted.

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