Year I - Number 73 Wednesday July 11, 2012 Editor-in-chief: Tiago Azevedo Deputy editor-in-chief: José I. Duarte MOP 6.00 www.macaubusinessdaily.com
Piled high sold cheap: new rail link fares Last Friday Business Daily asked if the new rail link from Guangzhou to Zhuhai would bring high spending visitors or yet more tourists with little cash. It looks like the latter. A single ticket will be 36 yuan (45 patacas) for a normal seat and 44 yuan for a first-class one – cheaper than some bus fares. Page 6
Greek’s myth busted in Amax court move T
he polite fiction that Hong Kong-listed Macau junket investor Amax Holdings and Taipa casino Greek Mythology are somehow separate operations has been swept away in a legal move by Amax in the Macau courts. Even though Amax is technically only a minority shareholder in the Greek Mythology operation, Amax has
taken upon itself the task of requesting all “unknown interested parties” who own shares of Greek Mythology (Macau) Entertainment Group Corporation Ltd to come forward. That’s according to court notices published in local media in the last two days. The notices say records of some shares “have been misplaced,” which led Amax to ask for the
shareholder registry to be replaced by a new one. A court hearing will be held at the Lower Court in September to try to reach a consensus between shareholders. In 2010, Greek Mythology turned a loan from a shareholder into new shares, thus reducing Amax’s stake to 24.8 percent. But, “with advice from professional legal advisers,”
Amax continued to claim it held a 49.9 percent stake. The dispute over shareholdings took a new twist after a recent “Triad-style” attack on Amax and Greek Mythology shareholder Ng Wai – and preparations to launch a US$200 million initial public offering in Hong Kong for an entity related to Greek Mythology. More on page 3
Tug-of-war over Lan Kwai Fong
HANG SENG INDEX 19550
The board of China Star Entertainment Limited, the owner of Macau hotel-casino Lan Kwai Fong, wants to reduce the company shares by almost half to enhance the assets per share ratio. China Star’s major shareholder, cinema producer Charles Heung Wah Kueng, has put forward an alternative bid. But it could require him to launch a takeover of the other investors.
19500
19450
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19400
19350
Gamblers’ tax to boost elderly pension?
July 10
HSI - Movers
Money from the city’s tax take on gamblers should be diverted to pay for an increase in the old age pension, a legislator said in a written enquiry. The idea is to use money from the 1.6 percent tax on behalf of the Macau Foundation that is levied on all bets. The plan comes from pan-democrat Ng Kuok Cheong.
Airline pays passengers
Name AIA GROUP LTD
1.11
CHINA MOBILE
1.00
COSCO PAC LTD
0.90
BOC HONG KONG HO
0.86
BANK OF CHINA-H
0.70
Matsu casino – blip on Macau chart
MTR CORP
-1.86
CATHAY PAC AIR
-2.00
CHINA COAL ENE-H
-2.43
CLP HLDGS LTD
-2.60
A single Taiwan casino resort built off the coast of China’s Fujian province is likely to shave at most only a few percent off Macau’s annual gross gaming revenue suggests an analyst. Another note to investors suggests however that Macau will need increasingly to appeal to visitors from beyond Guangdong, adding that increased regional competition could lower longterm rates of return.
CHINA RES ENTERP
-2.81
Page 4
What should have been short hops by ‘plane from Taiwan to Macau turned into two cases of passenger stranding that cost Air Macau NT$220,000 (58,695 patacas) in customer compensation alone. Two Air Macau flights from Taoyuan in Taiwan to Macau were delayed on Saturday – one for six hours because the airline did not have pilots to fly the plane. Page 6
%Day
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Source: Bloomberg
2012-7-11
27˚ 33˚
2012-7-12
2012-7-13
27˚ 33˚
27˚ 31˚