Macau (MNA) – Hong Kong-based International Entertainment Corporation (IEC) has announced that it has reached an agreement to purchase the entire issued share capital of Rational Live Events Macau Limited, a local subsidiary of The Stars Group, the group responsible for the PokerStars brand.
Rational Live Events Macau Limited – a company incorporated in Macau which specialises in the holding of live events/poker tournaments in Macau – is currently managing, operating and organising live events/poker tournaments in the city, with IEC declaring the purchase would ‘facilitate’ its operation of similar events in Macau.
In May of this year, The Stars Group entered into an agreement with IEC to license the PokerStars brand for land-based live events and poker rooms across Asia, with the brand currently seeking a new venue for its PokerStars Live room in Macau.
IEC effected the purchase through its wholly owned subsidiary Lucky Genius Limited Limited, disbursing some US$3 million in the deal.
Lucky Genius purchased the shares in the company for a consideration of US$436,272 (HK$3.42 million) from The Stars Group subsidiaries, Global Poker Tours Limited (GPT) and European Poker Tour (IOM) Limited, and is to pay a US$2.5 million debt in cash owed by Rational Live to GPT.
The head of IEC and professional poker player, Stanley Choi Chiu Fai, told Inside Asian Gaming publication that the move was a step forward in bringing the PokerStars LIVE brand back to Macau.
Since 2013 a PokerStars Live room had operated in the Melco Resorts & Entertainment property City of Dreams.
However, the room stopped operating in May of this year, with Melco CEO and chairman Lawrence Ho Yau Lung commenting that “the poker space was never profitable.”
According to IAG, the company is in negotiations to re-launch PokerStars LIVE Macau in Studio City in order to be able to hold the 29th edition of the Macau Poker Cup.
IEC is a Hong Kong listed company engaged in hotel operations and the leasing of properties for casino and ancillary leisure and entertainment operations. It owns the Hotel Group in the Philippines and, through it, the AG New World Manila Bay Hotel in Manila.
IEC’s hotel branch also previously held a 40 per cent interest in Arc of Triumph Development Company Limited, a local property investment company that developed and operates the hotel casino and high-end residential property L’Arc, but has sold the stake in 2010.
