Ponte 16 puts off launch of gaming facilities over construction delays

Ponte 16, a HK$2.4 billion casino hotel complex being developed in Macau by gaming magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun's Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) and Sonny Yeung Hoi-sing's Macau Success, has pushed back the opening of its gaming facilities until late this year due to construction delays.

The 270,000 square foot casino was scheduled to open in June. Executives yesterday said it would open before the end of the year instead, along with a 404-room Sofitel hotel.

'As we enter the later stages of construction, we are asking workers to work overtime,' Ponte 16 chief executive and Macau Success executive director Marco Lee Siu-cheung said at a topping-out ceremony for the project.

'We are taking precautions and attempting to relieve the problem of shortage of labour but we believe it will not affect the [revised] completion date.'

The Ponte 16 joint venture, in which SJM has a 51 per cent stake, is on the west side of the Macau peninsula next to a Unesco world heritage site marking the former Portuguese enclave's historic inner harbour.

The first phase includes the hotel and a casino with 150 mass-market gaming tables, 24 VIP tables to be managed by Macau Success, and 300 slot machines. An attached 500,000 sq ft entertainment and retail complex is targeted to open in the first half of next year.