CIFI chairman Lin Zhong and his brothers are asking HK$1.66 billion (US$212.7 million) for five houses in Stanley, 7.88 per cent less than the purchase price. Each 3-storey unit comes with a garden and swimming pool.

The Covid-19 pandemic posed significant challenges to the company’s property, transport and hospitality businesses, Pansy Ho says. The group plans to embark on new ventures later this year.

‘I’m too excited to say a word. I can finally go home after two years of not seeing the folks,’ says one traveller returning to Guangdong for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Macau’s six casino operators are expected to pump US$14.7 billion into the local economy with non-gaming projects required for new gambling licenses.

The announcement wraps up a jostling for rights to operate gambling halls in the world’s largest betting hub, where Macau remains the only place on Chinese soil where casinos are legal.

The state-backed real estate giant’s announcement comes as President Xi Jinping underscores the critical role of Hong Kong during the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th national congress in Beijing.

The beauty parade was the culmination of years of work by Macau’s government to reform betting in the world’s gambling capital, as it continues to navigate a fine balance between a fiscal reliance on casino taxes, and Beijing’s push to diversify the city’s economy from betting.

Covid-19 restrictions dragged on the profits of Hong Kong developers in the January to June period, with declines ranging from 40.5 per cent to 58 per cent, filings with the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday show.

The consultation, released a day after the city’s second Five Year Development Plan, is likely to translate into a new gambling law, most likely coming into effect before Macau’s six casino concessions expire in June 2022.

The push into Singapore stands in stark contrast with Shun Tak’s footprint in Hong Kong, the birthplace and childhood home of the late casino tycoon Stanley Ho, where the company had not launched any project in six years.

While analysts and industry observers agree on Macau’s need to diversify its economy from gaming, they say the city has to find a financial niche for itself.

The late Macau casino tycoon’s Shun Tak Holdings has spent more than US$1.4 billion on Singapore land and property since 2016, and market watchers are wondering if its residential and hotel projects are on track for completion.

Pansy is the eldest child of Ho’s second wife, the fifth out of 16 children in the extended clan, and described by the late magnate as the child who is most like him in personality.

Ho leaves behind a gambling empire that contributed to as much as half of the tax receipts earned by the Macau government, a heft that made him the first living Macanese to have an avenue in the territory named after him.

With the extension, the casino concessions of SJM and MGM China would be synchronised with Sands China, Wynn Macau, Galaxy Entertainment and Melco Resorts.

Shun Tak Holdings has deepened ties with one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest families to strengthen its control of the largest holder of casino licences in Macau, giving managing director Pansy Ho Chiu-king the upper hand in a family tussle for magnate Stanley Ho’s gambling empire.

After his official retirement, Stanley Ho, who marks his 97th birthday in November, will remain as Chairman Emeritus of the company that he founded more than half a century ago

Shun Tak said its first-half net profit fell 33 per cent year on year to HK$672 million but that Macau and Hong Kong property would boost earnings in the second half.

The low-cost carrier (LCC) joint venture between China Eastern Airlines and Qantas' Jetstar Group is now more confident that with a local shareholder the government will recognise it as a Hong Kong-designated carrier and give it a licence.

Shun Tak Holdings is paying US$66 million for a third of the shares of Jetstar Hong Kong, the low-cost carrier awaiting regulatory clearance. The announcement came two days after the Hong Kong government said it had stopped processing applications of new airlines.

The company said core earnings amounted to HK$453 million for the year to December, up from HK$384 million in 2011. Taking into account HK$2.11 billion in revaluation gains from investment properties, net profit was HK$2.56 billion last year, more than triple the HK$781 million recorded in 2011.