GGRAsia – Tigre de Cristal licensee sale sees LET, Summit board exodus

Tigre de Cristal licensee sale sees LET, Summit board exodus

Jan 16, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Summit Ascent Holdings Ltd, which has been a long-standing investor in the Russian casino resort Tigre de Cristal (pictured), has become non-compliant with Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing rules after all but one of the company’s six directors resigned with effect from Monday. The step leaves only regional casino investor Andrew Lo Kai Bong as a director and chairman.

The same exodus took place at Summit Ascent’s parent company, Hong Kong-listed LET Group Holdings Ltd, which is also non-compliant with the Hong Kong bourse listing rules. Following the resignation of three non-executive directors, LET’s board is left with Mr Lo as chairman and executive director.

Those out at Summit Ascent include David Chua Ming Huat, the firm’s chief executive, and three independent non-executive board members. At LET, three non-executive directors stepped down, including from the company’s audit, remuneration and nomination committees.

Separate filings after market hours on Monday, said the exit of the representatives of the two companies was “due to their disapproval” of “a transaction which forms the subject matter of the inside information announcement of the company referred to in the trading halt announcement of the company dated 10 January 2024”.

That earlier trading halt statement for both companies – which has been effective since the start of trading on January 11 – did not go into details of the inside information.

“The company will use its best endeavours to identify a suitable candidate to fill the vacancy of the authorised representatives as soon as practicable,” as required under the listing rules, stated Summit Ascent’s Monday announcement.

On January 10, a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange by Taiwan firm Firich Enterprises Co Ltd, had disclosed that G1 Entertainment LLC – which holds a gaming licence for Tigre de Cristal granted by the Russian government – was being sold to a Russian firm, Dalnevostochniy Aktiv LLC, for a consideration of US$116 million, to be paid in Chinese yuan.

That selling process was via Oriental Regent Ltd, an entity 77.5 percent owned by Summit Ascent, and 20 percent owned by Firich Enterprises’ unit Firich Investment Ltd.

Oriental Regent has been the entity through which Summit Ascent has been running gaming and hotel operations at Tigre de Cristal near Vladivostok on Russia’s Pacific coast.

In an August filing to the Hong Kong bourse, Summit Ascent said it had swung to a loss of HKD16.1-million (US$2.1-million) in the first half to June 30, compared to a HKD85.2-million profit in the prior-year period.