Success Dragon buys HK moneylender as rejigs business

Dec 28, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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Success Dragon International Holdings Ltd, a manager of electronic gaming machines in Macau, says it has acquired a 100-percent stake in a Hong Kong-licensed moneylending company, Powerful Finance Ltd.

The suitor said the move – for a cash consideration of HKD400,000 (US$51,000) completed on Thursday and paid to the vendor Wong Kiam Seng , a Hong Kong resident – was part of a previously-announced move to realign Success Dragon’s business. Such rejig was designed to make it more focused on “fintech”, i.e. financial services powered and delivered via digital financial technology, and less focused on the fiercely competitive casino services sector.

Success Dragon said the moneylender was now a subsidiary. The company told the Hong Kong Stock Exchange: “The acquisition will help the group to leverage the target company’s experience in moneylending and bring synergies to the group’s information technology services business with a focus on fintech, thereby enhancing the profitability of the group’s business as a whole.”

Success Dragon reported last month that its loss in the electronic gaming machine management business narrowed to HKD6.52 million on revenue of HKD43.62 million in its financial first half ended September 30 from a loss of HKD9.22 million on revenue of HKD60.37 million a year earlier.

The company said it reduced its first-half loss in the electronic gaming machine management business by controlling operating costs. It blamed the fall in revenue in the business on intense competition in the Macau gaming market and the loss of a client, the Landmark Macau casino hotel. The latter was officially renamed the New Orient Landmark Hotel in September after changing ownership.

In its November announcement, Success Dragon had said it would “form strategic partnership with and invest tactically into leading fintech companies”. The company said its strategy would see a rebuild of the information technology services business. The management at Success Dragon also saw commercial opportunities in applying so-called blockchain technologies – also known as a distributed ledger systems – to “complement or diversify” its businesses.

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