Emperor Entertainment Hotel extends casino operations until year-end

In April, the company had announced it was going to close its doors on June 26.
In April, the company had announced it was going to close its doors on June 26.

The company has reversed its decision to close its satellite casino mid-year.

Macau.- Emperor Entertainment Hotel Limited has reversed its decision to close its satellite casino this month and has renewed its service agreement with gaming concessionaire SJM until December 31. The agreement had been set to expire on June 26.

Under these circumstances, SJM Holdings will continue to operate the satellite casino located in Macau’s Grand Emperor Hotel for another six months.

According to local media reports, SJM Holdings Tin Hou, an indirect subsidiary of Emperor E Hotel, entered into an agreement with SJM to provide hotel rooms, catering and other services to Emperor Hotel until the end of the year for a total of HK$21m (US$2.6m).

At the beginning of April, Emperor Hotel announced that it would not renew its service contract with gaming franchisee SJM, which was due to expire on June 26.

The news caused some concern in the industry, especially among workers who feared losing their jobs. However, SJM Holdings’ executive director Angela Leong On Kei quickly came out to say the casino operator was going to take care of employees affected by the closure of satellite casinos linked to the company.

At the same time,  SJM Holdings Ltd announced its purchase of the Oceanus property where the group currently operates the Oceanus casino. The motivation for the purchase is the extension of the company’s concession contract with the Macau government, allowing it to meet a new property ownership requirement.

Emperor expects US$70m to US$96m net loss for FY21/22

Emperor Entertainment Hotel Limited announced that it expects to record a net loss of between HKD550m (US$70m) and HKD750m (US$96m) for the year ended on March 31 2022. The company reported a loss of HKD224m (US$29m) for the previous fiscal year.

Emperor Entertainment Hotel Limited said the result was mainly due to “a significant increase on fair value loss and impairment losses during the year mainly resulting from the revaluation loss of the group’s investment properties and the expected cessation of gaming business to be realised in June 2022 respectively.”