Lippo plans South Korean resort venture with casino giant Caesars
Investment group links with casino giant Caesars to take advantage of rise in tourism
Lippo, the Hong Kong-listed investment group, plans to team up with joint venture partners including the American casino giant Caesars Entertainment to build a resort complex in South Korea.
The group, which is controlled by the Indonesian Riady family, said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange that it "entered into agreements … to seek preliminary governmental approval" to an integrated resort in Incheon, South Korea. Lippo has a 20 per cent stake in the joint venture, Caesars has 40 per cent and another joint venture partner the remaining 40 per cent.
The project includes hotels and serviced apartments, with plans for Caesars to build and operate an integrated hotel-casino. Lippo said it would not "participate or engage in any gaming business in the project".
Chelsey Tam, an analyst at Emperor Securities, said: "The success of Macau and Singapore in becoming the region's gambling hubs has raised interest in neighbouring countries in developing their own gaming and tourism industries."
Lippo's planned Incheon venture may have been encouraged by the increasing number of Chinese tourists travelling to South Korea, according to Tam.