SJM adds HK$5b to bill for new casino

SJM, Asia's biggest casino operator, said it will spend HK$5 billion more than planned on its newest Macau resort owing to rising labour and construction costs.

The project in Macau's increasingly popular Cotai area was now expected to cost HK$25 billion to build, chief executive Ambrose So said at a media briefing in the gambling hub yesterday.

SJM, founded by gambling mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun, joins rivals including Sands China and Galaxy Entertainment in expanding on Cotai. While SJM runs 20 of the 35 casinos in Macau, it has none in Cotai.

The new casino resort will include a luxury hotel that SJM is developing with Italian fashion house Gianni Versace. The Palazzo Versace hotel will have as many as 270 rooms and is due to open in 2017. Construction will begin in the next few months.

The Hong Kong-listed casino company was also considering buying land in Hengqin, an island next to Macau, So said.

Shun Tak, the property company also founded by Ho, said earlier this year it won a bid for a site in Hengqin and planned to build a hotel-to-office complex there. Beijing designated Hengqin as a tourism, business and cultural zone, and a resort was under construction in the area, Shun Tak said then.