SJM Resorts Ltd, the casino operating unit of SJM Holdings Ltd, has agreed to cut the minimum payable fee regarding a three-year deal to lease a food court at the group’s Grand Lisboa Palace gaming resort, set to open on Friday (July 30).
The move – in favour of Hong Kong-listed Future Bright Holdings Ltd – is being done by SJM Resorts “as a promotion of the grand opening of the Grand Lisboa Palace and as a concession” to the lessee, Bright Noble Co Ltd, a Macau-registered firm controlled by Future Bright.
Future Bright is led by Macau legislator Chan Chak Mo.
SJM Holdings is “striving” to have a partial opening of its HKD39-billion (US$5-billion) Grand Lisboa Palace casino resort (pictured) on Friday, July 30, said on Wednesday the company’s chairman Daisy Ho Chiu Fung.
Under the revised deal, SJM Resorts waives its right in the first year of the deal, to a HKD700,000 minimum monthly base fee.
Under the amended arrangement, the original monthly minimum base fee of HKD700,000 is also revised for the following two years of the deal.
Year two of the agreement will see the monthly turnover fee subject to a minimum base fee of HKD350,000. Year three will see the monthly turnover fee subject to a minimum base fee of HKD385,000 and a maximum fee of HKD700,000.
The original deal for Bright Noble to lease 3,500 square feet (325 sq. metres) of retail space at Grand Lisboa Palace had been announced in early January 2020, shortly before the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic were felt on Macau’s tourism market.
Under the original deal, Bright Noble was to pay – over the course of three years – a figure equal to 14.5 percent of the monthly turnover received from all its business carried on at Grand Lisboa Palace, subject to the HKD700,000 minimum base fee.
Under the amended deal announced on Friday, while the base fee has been cut, Bright Noble will pay 17 percent on the first HKD3 million of monthly turnover; and 18 percent on any monthly turnover that exceeds HKD3 million.
According to the 2020 announcement, Bright Noble also had to pay a HKD1.4-million security deposit as part of the deal.
