The Chairman of regional gaming investor International Entertainment Corp (IEC) has sold off a 4.6% stake in the company, according to details filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday.
Stanley Choi, best known as a high-stakes poker player, disposed of 63 million shares in International Entertainment at a price of HK$0.39 per share – raking in HK$24.6 million (US$3.2 million) in the process.
The transaction reduces the stake held by his wholly-owned company Brighten Path Limited from 36.83% to 32.23%, or 441,223,268 shares.
IEC did not reveal the identity of the purchaser but said they are a “third party independent of and not connected with the Company and its connected persons.”
It is the second time this year that Choi, who acquired the company in 2017, has reduced his stake having sold off an 18.99% share to IEC’s Chief Executive Officer, Ho Wong Meng, in March for HK$228.8 million (US$29.4 million). That transaction had reduced Choi’s stake from 55.82%.
IEC owns New Coast Hotel Manila in the Philippines where it plans to co-run casino operations alongside local gaming regulator PAGCOR as part of a recently signed cooperation agreement. The company then plans to use the know-how it acquires from PAGCOR to develop and operate its own integrated resort in Manila, having already been granted a provisional gaming license.
IEC recently revealed that its IR would feature “two-to-three sky high buildings” and cover 250,000 square meters of total area, with substantial gaming and non-gaming attractions.
Aside from its casino ambitions, IEC also holds the rights to run land-based live poker events and poker rooms across Asia, including in Macau, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia, under the PokerStars brand.
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