The boss of local junket operator Suncity Group, Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, saw his property businesses in the Mainland remain in the red for the first half of the year despite a surge in total turnover. Property investment company Sun Century Group Ltd, which is chaired by the junket boss, posted a net loss of RMB64.8 million (MOP77.3 million/US$9.7 million) for the first six months of the year, down 54 per cent compared to losses of RMB140.6 million for the same period last year, according to the company’s filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last week. The Hong Kong-listed unit is primarily engaged in property development, as well as leasing management of properties in Mainland China, and hotel and resort management and consultancy. For the six-month period, the company’s total turnover surged by 116.3 per cent year-on-year to RMB205.6 million, of which 84.6 per cent was derived from property development, while 15.4 per cent was from property leasing. But the investor’s hotel consultancy services, set up in 2014, registered a loss of RMB20,000 for the same period, compared to losses of RMB1.4 million one year ago. ‘The company has been in the process of setting up subsidiaries for the opportunities of hotels and integrated resorts in the Asian countries, such as Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam,’ it wrote in the filing. In July, Sun Century announced that it was going to sell its subsidiary Sun City Group Tourism Ltd to another two subsidiaries, in order to expand the company’s tourism–related business to Vietnam and South Korea. The company added at that time that the deal was also expected to diversify its tourism-related business in Macau. According to the July announcement, Mr. Chau holds 57.3 per cent of the issued stock of Sun Century. K.L.
—
