GGRAsia – Saipan casino operator CEO quits after less than a year

Saipan casino operator CEO quits after less than a year

Oct 08, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC has announced the resignation of chief executive and chairman Henry Cheang. The entity runs Imperial Pacific Resort (pictured), a casino complex on Saipan, part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a United States jurisdiction in the Western Pacific.

The announcement by the operating unit was made on Friday. It did not give a reason for Mr Cheang’s resignation. He had been in post for under one year.

The statement said the operating unit of Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific International Ltd was grateful for Mr Cheang’s service in a range of roles over three years, adding he had made “significant contributions to our company’s success”.

In reporting his resignation, the Marianas Variety newspaper noted Mr Cheang had become chief executive of the operating unit in January, replacing Mark Brown, who had resigned the month before.

The newspaper said the departure of Mr Cheang followed the resignation in August of his predecessor as chairman, Marco Teng, and the subsequent resignation of executive director Cai Lingli.

In its interim balance sheet filed at the end of August, Imperial Pacific said VIP rolling chip volume was about HKD100.3 billion for the first six months of this year, down 48.9 percent in the corresponding period last year.

Gross trade receivables – typically associated with money owed by VIP gamblers for losses they have incurred while playing on credit – for the six months to June 30 were up slightly, at HKD13.70 billion (US$1.75 billion), compared to HKD13.28 billion in the same period 12 months earlier.

In August the listed business was given until February 28, 2021, to complete the initial phase of Imperial Pacific Resort. In July last year, the listed entity said it had reached an agreement with the Saipan authorities to amend the licence and downsize the scale of the development.

Imperial Pacific had mentioned building a facility with 329 rooms in a four- or five-star hotel, gaming area of 14,140 square metres (152,202 sq feet), villas, restaurants, retail and meeting spaces.