Summit Ascent to sell Tigre de Cristal licence for US$116m

The company has sold its majority stake in the Tigre de Cristal casino resort in the Primorye Gambling Zone to a Russian firm.

Russia.- Oriental Regent Limited will sell its wholly-owned G1 Entertainment, which possesses a gaming licence for Tigre de Cristal, to Russian entity Dalnevostochniy Aktiv. The deal was valued at US$116m and will be transacted in Chinese yuan. 

Oriental Regent’s controlling entity, Summit Ascent, and related company LET Group halted trading on Thursday (January 11), stating “pending the release of an inside information announcement.” The sale, however, was disclosed by Taiwan firm Firich Enterprises, whose unit Firich Investment holds a 20 per cent stake in Oriental Regent.

Firich stated in its filing that it would receive US$28m in cash from the sale of Oriental Regent, thereby “reducing its exposure to Russia to zero”. The company then stated the transaction would negatively impact its balance sheet in 2023 by over US$18.4m.

There are currently two casinos in the Primorye Gambling Zone in Russia. Summit Ascent’s Tigre de Cristal opened to the public in 2015. It was followed almost five years later by Shambhala, which opened at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last August, Summit Ascent Holdings posted a net loss of HK$16.1m (US$2.1m) for the first half of the year. The primary factor was exchange losses amounting to approximately HK$35.2m stemming from fluctuations in the Russian ruble, with its fall contrasting to HK$157.1m in exchange gains in the first half of 2022. 

The company’s revenue from gaming and hotel operations at Tigre de Cristal rose by 2.3 per cent year-on-year to HK$182m. Revenue from gaming operations declined from HK$167.6m to HK$167.3m. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) fell 5 per cent year-on-year, to HK$57m.