Monday, June 05, 2006

Cambodian casino [owned by a Malaysian tycoon close supporter of Hun Sen] seeks up to $77 mln in HK IPO-paper

HONG KONG, June 5 (Reuters) - Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp plans to raise between HK$400 million and HK$600 million (US$51-US$77 million) in a Hong Kong initial public offering to be launched this month, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The listing hearing of NagaCorp was scheduled for this month, before a proposed share sale of casino mogul Stanley Ho's Macau casino operation, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM), in July, the South China Morning Post quoted market sources as saying.

SJM aims to raise HK$15 billion in its IPO.

NagaCorp, which is owned by Malaysian tycoon Chen Lip Keong, owns the only legal casino in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh. Anglo Chinese was the sponsor of the listing, the newspaper said.

Cambodia's gaming market was relatively underdeveloped, with about US$1 billion of gaming revenue generated from 12 casinos last year, compared with Macau's US$5.4 billion gaming market, the newspaper said.

About 90 percent of the gamblers in Cambodia come from Thailand, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, the South China Morning Post said. (US$=HK$7.8)

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