Stanley Ho bets HK$21b to regain gaming glory

SJM unveils four-year project to build more Macau casinos

Stanley Ho Hung-sun's SJM Holdings is planning to spend HK$21 billion developing casino projects in Macau over the next four years, the company's most aggressive expansion in the gaming industry since the Casino Lisboa opened in 1970.

The ambitious plans mark the most dramatic push yet by Mr Ho to claw back market share lost to new competitors after his four-decade casino monopoly ended in 2002.

SJM this week launched its formal roadshow in an attempt to raise between HK$3.85 billion and HK$5.1 billion in an initial public offering.

Its project pipeline centres on a proposed HK$12 billion investment to redevelop the original Lisboa hotel and several other Macau and Cotai casinos, the company's draft listing prospectus shows.

While SJM operates 19 of Macau's 29 licensed casinos, most of them are small-scale, ageing properties, and 10 are managed by third-party promoters on a franchise basis. But the key to the future success of the company - and its pending offering - will be the stable of new projects represented by the HK$21 billion investment.

'The first part of the investment case would be that SJM can improve the profitability of the legacy assets, and the second is that, can they grow in a 'New Macau' direction in terms of developing large-scale casino resort properties,' UBS Securities analyst Grant Chum said, citing last year's opening of the Grand Lisboa as an example of the new strategy.