{"id":66047,"date":"2017-12-20T17:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T01:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=66047"},"modified":"2017-12-20T15:14:37","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T23:14:37","slug":"taiwanese-shipping-firm-buys-shares-of-tigre-de-cristal-casino-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/taiwanese-shipping-firm-buys-shares-of-tigre-de-cristal-casino-in-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Taiwanese Shipping Firm Buys Up Shares of Tigre de Cristal Casino in Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just days after Hong Kong billionaire Lawrence Ho announced that he was selling off his interest in Russia\u2019s Tigre de Cristal casino, a Taiwanese shipping firm is stepping in to pick up most of his shares.<\/p>\n

\"Tigre
A Taiwanese shipping firm scooped up most of the shares of a Russian casino resort that Lawrence Ho had unloaded. (Image: Asia Gaming Brief)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to a Monday press release, First Steamship Co Ltd will purchase nearly 189 million shares in Summit Ascent Holdings, a move that will give the shipping firm a 12.67 percent stake in the developer of the resort in a region of Russia that borders China and North Korea on the Sea of Japan.<\/p>\n

The recent corporate moves have dramatically changed the ownership profile of Tigre de Cristal, currently the only casino in the Russian region of Primorsky Krai. While the area was envisioned as a gambling hub about 30 miles north of Vladivostok, so far only the one resort has been built, and the destination has failed to attract gamblers.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong casino mogul Lawrence Ho began bailing on the property in September<\/a>, and his latest selloff has completed the divestment. He announced the sale of 258.6 million shares, which amounted to more than 17 percent of Summit Ascent. At HK $1.05 ($0.13) a share, the sale netted Ho $33.6 million. While some of those shares were controlled directly by Ho, most were held by his development company Quick Glitter Ltd.<\/p>\n

\u2018Long Term Investment\u2019<\/h2>\n

With a large number of outstanding shares available, First Steamship jumped at the opportunity to grab a significant foothold in the Russian gaming market.<\/p>\n

At the moment, the resort reportedly does solid business on weekends, but attracts little traffic from Monday through Friday. In addition to its location being somewhat remote, nearly an hour\u2019s drive from Vladivostok, supposedly sizable illegal gambling activity in the city itself presents competition.<\/p>\n

\n

The company noted that they saw this as a \u201clong term investment,\u201d according to First Steamship\u2019s recent filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange in Taipei.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But long-term investment in the casino also could run into obstacles from the Russian government, as Moscow has declared plans to increase the taxes and fees for casino operators, possibly by as much as 10-fold by 2020.<\/p>\n

Putin on the Ritz<\/h2>\n

Some suggests a worsening situation. However, First Steamship may be looking beyond the short-term conditions and hoping for a longer-term payoff in a region that remains potentially lucrative, even if it hasn\u2019t yet realized its potential.<\/p>\n

Moves by Moscow to push out casinos in the Azov-City region to allow for more gaming in Sochi show the risk some developers face, but also reveal that the government hasn\u2019t yet given up on Primorsky Krai the way Ho has.<\/p>\n

But Ho has his eye on larger, more luxurious projects. The CEO and Chairman Melco Resorts and Entertainment said he\u2019ll do \u201cwhatever it takes\u201d to gain a foothold in the soon-to-be-opened Japanese casino market<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That promise included a pledge to move the company\u2019s headquarters to Japan should the firm receive a license to operate an integrated resort in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just days after Hong Kong billionaire Lawrence Ho announced that he was selling off his interest in Russia\u2019s Tigre de Cristal casino, a Taiwanese shipping firm is stepping in to pick up most of his shares. According to a Monday press release, First Steamship Co Ltd will purchase nearly 189 million shares in Summit Ascent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":66048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,10,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTaiwanese Shipping Firm Buys Shares of Tigre de Cristal Casino in Russia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just days after Lawrence Ho sold off his interest in Russia\u2019s Tigre de Cristal casino resort, a Taiwanese company jumped in to pick up his shares.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/taiwanese-shipping-firm-buys-shares-of-tigre-de-cristal-casino-in-russia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taiwanese Shipping Firm Buys Shares of Tigre de Cristal Casino in Russia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just days after Lawrence Ho sold off his interest in Russia\u2019s Tigre de Cristal casino resort, a Taiwanese company jumped in to pick up his shares.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/taiwanese-shipping-firm-buys-shares-of-tigre-de-cristal-casino-in-russia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-21T01:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-20T23:14:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Tigre-De-Cristal.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/taiwanese-shipping-firm-buys-shares-of-tigre-de-cristal-casino-in-russia\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/taiwanese-shipping-firm-buys-shares-of-tigre-de-cristal-casino-in-russia\/\",\"name\":\"Taiwanese Shipping Firm Buys Shares of Tigre de Cristal Casino in Russia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/taiwanese-shipping-firm-buys-shares-of-tigre-de-cristal-casino-in-russia\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/taiwanese-shipping-firm-buys-shares-of-tigre-de-cristal-casino-in-russia\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Tigre-De-Cristal.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-21T01:00:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-20T23:14:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Just days after Lawrence Ho sold off his interest in Russia\u2019s Tigre de Cristal casino resort, a Taiwanese company jumped in to pick up his shares.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/taiwanese-shipping-firm-buys-shares-of-tigre-de-cristal-casino-in-russia\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/taiwanese-shipping-firm-buys-shares-of-tigre-de-cristal-casino-in-russia\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/taiwanese-shipping-firm-buys-shares-of-tigre-de-cristal-casino-in-russia\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Tigre-De-Cristal.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Tigre-De-Cristal.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":400,\"caption\":\"A Taiwanese shipping firm scooped up most of the shares of a Russian casino resort that Lawrence Ho had unloaded. 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