Sun City Listco, Busan Cooperation Agreement with Paradise Co., Ltd
Suncity Group Holdings Inc., a Hong Kong-listed vehicle controlled by Macau casino junket investor Alvin Chauchukwah, said on Thursday that its wholly owned subsidiary had signed a non-law binding note on a possible cooperation with Paradise Inc., the South Korean operator of foreign-only casinos.
The Memorandum of Understanding relating to Paradise Casino Busan said in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Busan (pictured) is a port city on the southeastern coast of the Korean Peninsula, just 90 minutes by air from the Japanese city of Osaka.
While the Suncity brand is best known for supplying high-stakes Chinese casino gamblers to the Macau market, the publicly traded company, which has not included revenue streams from Macau gambling junkets in its filing accounts, has increased its gaming investments beyond Greater China, both in terms of new resorts like Hoiana in Vietnam and deals managed by third parties in other markets like Cambodia.
In a recent announcement, Suncity Group Holdings said: “The company has been focused on expanding its tourism-related business and the board believes that once possible cooperation materializes, both parties can create synergies and developments. Strengths, resources and expertise…”
The company added, “Paradise Casino Busan is currently operated by Paradise [Co], and is a licensed casino with various gaming facilities located in Paradise Hotel Busan next to Haeundae Beach, one of the best tourist attractions in Busan.”
Despite its location, Paradise Hotel Busan was somewhat underdeveloped in the fourth quarter of the three Korean Peninsula casino operations operated by Paradiseco.
Casino sales amounted to only 20 billion won ($17.8 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, compared to 80.7 billion won achieved by Seoul’s Walkerhill Real Estate and 71.8 billion won by Paradise City, a resort near Incheon International Airport. Paradise City is an investment partnership between Paradise and Japanese conglomerate Sega Sammy Holdings.
The Jeju Grand Casino Hotel, run by Paradise on Jeju Island, a semi-autonomous region in Korea that is popular with Chinese tourists, booked about 7.4 billion won in casino sales in the last quarter of 2018.
Chinese VIP players’ contributions to the entire ‘soft drop’ group in Paradise (the amount customers exchanged for chips at the game table) increased 34.6% sequentially from W402 billion to W541 billion in the fourth quarter.
The company said it saw a 19.7% year-over-year drop in casinos in the fourth quarter, adding that it was “driven by a recovery in China’s VIPs.”
BY: 카지노