By Ben Blaschke
Oriental Regent Ltd, the casino and integrated resort arm of Hong Kong investment company Summit Ascent, has announced adjusted EBITDA of HK$132 million and net profit of HK$559,000 for 2016 on the back of a huge upswing in rolling chip volume at its Tigre de Cristal resort in Vladivostok.
2016 represented the first full year of operations for Tigre de Cristal, the region’s first integrated resort which targets VIP players from Northeast Asia. Rolling chip turnover for the year came in at HK$14.1 billion of which HK$10.6 billion was generated in the second half.
That HK$10.6 billion also represented an increase of 1,762% year-on-year from HK$570 million in 2H15, although VIP gaming was only introduced on 11 November that year. VIP gross gaming revenue came in at HK$380 million for the second half of 2016 with mass table GGR at around HK$63 million, up 86% year-on-year.
Construction on Phase II of Tigre de Cristal is currently underway and will add another 1.08 million square feet of resort space to the property when open in 2018, including an extra 100 VIP gaming tables, 70 mass market tables and 500 slot machines.
Summit Ascent is also anticipating that relaxed visa rules and the implementation of free e-visas for Far East visitors will help attract more tourists from northern China, Japan and Korea.
“Management remains optimistic about the prospects of further ramp-up of the business in light of the recent announcement by the Primorsky Government that a much simplified visa regime will be implemented in the summer of 2017,” it said in an announcement.
