Saipan casino developer buys into owner of project sites

Jul 11, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World  

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Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd, the developer of a casino resort on the Pacific island of Saipan, says it has bought 50 percent of a company that owns land on Saipan (pictured) where a hotel and housing are being built.

Imperial Pacific said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesday that a subsidiary, Excel Earth Ltd, had agreed that day to pay First Sinopan International Ltd over US$23.65 million for 50 percent of the equity in American Sinopan LLC.

Imperial Pacific said American Sinopan owned two pieces of land on Saipan, together measuring 129,687 square metres (about 1.4 million square feet).

On one lot, work on building 12 villas and a three-storey public facility is in progress.

The other lot is the site for a resort hotel with over 1,700 rooms, work on which has begun, according to Wednesday’s filing.

Imperial Pacific told the stock exchange: “In view of the location and the uses of the lands under the target company, the directors consider that the acquisition of the target company is in line with the business development of the group.”

A subsidiary of Imperial Pacific International Holdings is building a casino resort on Saipan, part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. possession in the western Pacific.

Completion of the casino resort has been postponed time and again as the developer sought money to finish building it.

Imperial Pacific announced on Monday that its controlling shareholder had agreed to sell about 9.79 percent of the company, and then lend the proceeds to the company for helping build the casino resort on Saipan. The company omitted to say how much money the sale would raise.

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