VIP gaming hall operator Sonny Yeung Hoi-sing's Macau Success yesterday said major Japanese pachinko parlour operator Maruhan Corp would pay HK$796.14 million for a minority stake in the company and its increasingly expensive Ponte 16 casino hotel project.
Maruhan becomes the first Japanese gaming firm to buy into a Macau casino and will acquire 18.2 per cent of Macau Success and a direct 5 per cent stake in Ponte 16 which is being developed in partnership with gaming magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun's Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM).
The deal is the second time in the past week that a foreign investor has bought a stake in a Macau gaming firm. Last week, British private equity giant Permira Advisers agreed to pay HK$6.5 billion for a 20 per cent interest in property and construction tycoon Lui Che-woo's Galaxy Entertainment Group.
Macau Success yesterday announced that the total investment for Ponte 16, which opens in phases from next month and includes a 404-room Sofitel hotel, was HK$3.1 billion, a 29 per cent increase over the previously announced building cost of HK$2.4 billion.
Management said the increase was not the result of construction cost overruns but due to revised budgeting to include the cost of gaming equipment, start-up capital and related expenses.
Maruhan is one of Japan's largest pachinko operators, with sales of HK$120 billion and an operating profit of HK$2 billion in the year to March. The Kyoto-based firm employs 9,000 people and operates 209 retail outlets across the country with a total of 118,451 pachinko and slot machines.