Stanley Ho (何鴻燊), who for decades held a monopoly on casinos in Macau, is taking his flagship firm public today as he battles the Las Vegas giants that have shaken up the territory’s gambling industry.
Once the only game in town, the 86-year-old tycoon’s iconic casinos are now just one piece of the multibillion-dollar gaming industry, which last year topped the Las Vegas Strip in revenues.
Ho is offering shares in Sociedade de Jogos de Macau Holdings (SJM), the company that made him one of Asia’s richest men — and that is believed to still be Macau’s biggest casino operator despite losing the monopoly in 2002.
PHOTO: AFP
A company source who declined to be named said SJM is looking to raise more than HK$5 billion (US$655 million) for the shares, which will be on subscription offer through July 2.
The move has been repeatedly delayed, reportedly because of a bitter fight for control with his estranged sister Winnie (何婉琪). But the tycoon, who also owns most of the lucrative ferry services to Macau, said this week it would go ahead.
“I want everyone to know we will launch the initial public offering according to plan,” Ho said in Hong Kong at a meeting this week with potential investors. “We will not let anyone stop us.”
Analysts say that taking SJM public will bring greater transparency to the former Portuguese colony, long saddled with a murky reputation but now seen as a premium destination for gamblers from across Asia and beyond.
Ho, born in 1921 into one of Hong Kong’s most powerful families, moved to Macau in his 20s and carved out his fortune by cornering the market on gambling, holding a monopoly for around four decades.
Macau ended the monopoly six years ago, allowing in foreign casino companies that answered to much stricter laws and regulation of the industry in their home countries.
The arrival of Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts, and the rapid development of a reclaimed parcel of land dubbed the Cotai Strip, has transformed the sleepy territory into a gambling and nightlife hotspot.
Macau’s casinos took in more than US$10.3 billion last year, topping the Las Vegas Strip for the first time.
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