A day after its parent company LET Group announced a raft of new directors, Summit Ascent Holdings – the majority owner of Russian casino resort Tigre de Cristal and an investor in a US$1.1 billion hotel and casino being built in Manila’s Entertainment City – has unveiled a new board of its own.
In a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing, Summit Ascent said it had appointed five new directors as part of its efforts to comply with listing rules. All previous directors other than Chairman Andrew Lo walked out last year in protest over Lo’s efforts to offload Tigre de Cristal.
The new directors include one who has also joined the LET Group board – Lam Hung Tuan – who is currently Chief Technology Officer of the group’s Philippines subsidiary Suntrust Resort Holdings, the company developing its Manila IR.
The others are Lau Yau Cheung, a veteran of the corporate finance industry and one of the directors who walked out a little over a year ago, accountant Li Chak Hung who also walked out last January, business development professional Christine Ng Shin Kwan, and Mak Sin Man, who is already Summit Ascent’s financial controller.
Despite the appointments, trading in Summit Ascent’s shares remains suspended under order of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) which said last year that it had “serious concerns about the conduct” of management of LET Group and Summit Ascent in relation to the planned sale of the entity that controls its Russian integrated resort, Tigre de Cristal.
The SFC later launched legal action against Lo for the alleged misconduct, stating he “deliberately disregarded the applicable Listing Rules and the requirements under the Code on Takeovers and Mergers and caused both LET and [its subsidiary] Summit Ascent to enter into agreements to dispose of their assets in Russia in early 2024.”
In January 2024, prior to the SFC taking action, five of LET Group’s six board members had stepped down in protest at the attempted sale of Tigre de Cristal, leaving Lo as the company’s only representative before three directors returned in May, then departed again in November.
While Lo has since resumed efforts to sell off its Russian interests, Summit Ascent at present still holds hold a 77.5% stake in Tigre de Cristal operator Oriental Regent, while LET Group, formerly known as Suncity Group, owns 69.66% of Summit Ascent.
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