The man behind Macau’s ambitious luxury hotel The 13, Stephen Hung, has stepped down as Joint Chairman and Executive Director of The 13 Holdings Limited.
His departure was revealed in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange overnight, with The 13 Holdings Limited confirming that Hung “ceased to be member of the nomination committee of the company, member of the finance and investment committee of the company and Chairman of the executive committee of the company with effect from 25 January 2018.
Peter Coker now assumes sole responsibility as Chairman of the company, with Tom Lau Ko Yuen remaining Deputy Chairman.
News of Hung stepping down comes just two days after The 13 Holdings announced it had delayed the opening of The 13 by another month, with the planned 31 March launch date pushed back to 30 April 2018 due to delays related to a valuation assessment.
“As additional time was required by both the company and the valuer for the preparation and the due diligence works in respect of the valuation assessment on The 13 Hotel project, which resulted in delays in the expected timetable for the rights issue, the hotel opening, as at the latest practicable date, is expected to be on or before 30 April 2018,” the company stated in a Tuesday filing.
The 13 Holdings is still looking to secure extra funding to complete the hotel and has proposed an HK$973 million issuance of rights issue shares, which it previously admitted was its final option to raise the necessary funding.
Also in its Thursday filing, The 13 Holdings Limited revealed that Lau will acquire 82,477,999 shares in the company – representing approximately 8.96% of the total issues shared capital – via a sale and purchase agreement with current shareholder Pride Wisdom Group.
