No strings on foreign ownership for casino backer Suntrust

Jul 06, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck  

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Suntrust Home Developers Inc, a Philippine entity investing in a casino hotel scheme in Manila that is part of the Westside City Project, said in a Monday filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange the firm is “no longer subject to any foreign ownership limit”.

In mid-June the group said it had won approval to change its primary purpose from real estate development to “tourism-related businesses”.

In its latest filing to the Manila bourse Suntrust stated: “The company does not own land and is not engaged in any nationalised or partly-nationalised activity.” Under Philippine law, entities owning land must have majority local ownership.

One of Suntrust’s key backers, Hong Kong-listed Suncity Group Holdings Ltd, controlled by Macau casino junket boss Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, presently holds 51 percent of Suntrust but is planning to up its stake to just over 74 percent.

Suncity Group Holdings mentioned in a press release last month that the main casino hotel of the Westside City Project would have a total gross floor area of at least 182,000 square metres (about 1.96 million sq feet) and was “expected to be in operation in the fourth quarter 2022”.

Suncity Group Holdings also reiterated that the casino hotel portion of the scheme would have circa 400 gaming tables, about 1,200 slot machines, 400 five-star hotel rooms, 960 car park spaces, a pool club and a leisure club, among other attractions.

Mr Chau said in the group’s 2019 annual report filed on June 11 this year, that he would “soon” oversee a ground-breaking ceremony for the casino scheme.

Suncity Group Holdings also has a casino resort investment in Vietnam.

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