HONG KONG (AFP) — Shares in the casino firm of Macau tycoon Stanley Ho finally began trading in Hong Kong on Wednesday, but a string of court challenges and a weak overall market kept many investors away.
The initial public offering of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau Holdings (SJM) came after months of delay and against the background of an epic legal battle between Ho and his estranged sister Winnie.
Ho acknowledged the problems but said he was delighted the firm had finally made it to the market.
"You all know our path towards the listing has not been smooth," he said at a ceremony at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, accompanied by senior SJM executives and his fourth wife Angela.
"But we have successfully overcome a series of obstacles, turning challenges into opportunities," he said, citing a Chinese proverb: "True gold is not afraid of the fire of the red furnace."
Investors have been put off, though, and shares closed at 3.04 Hong Kong dollars, 1.3 percent (39 cents), down from the initial listing price of 3.08 Hong Kong dollars.
Around 55 percent of the share applications initially snapped up by the public were withdrawn in the last few days, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
Asked to comment Wednesday on his sister's numerous legal actions, Stanley Ho was defiant. "The evil will never beat the righteous," he said.
When the IPO was first mooted in January, SJM hoped to raise around 2 billion US dollars. But the final figure was around a quarter of that. The Hong Kong market has fallen more than 20 percent since the start of the year.
Dealers said the near-term outlook for SJM was not rosy, in line with the rest of Macau's gaming sector, as China has started to limit visits to the city, the only place in the country where casino gambling is allowed.
"Authorities have tightened visa arrangements to Macau, making it less convenient to travel there. The business of all operators will be hit," Kenny Tang, from Tung Tai Securities told Dow Jones Newswires.
Stanley Ho, 86, has struggled to adapt to the influx of foreign-owned casinos that have transformed Macau since his four-decade monopoly on gambling was broken up in 2002.
Operators such as Las Vegas Sands and Wynn have torn into his market share, producing gleaming monuments to gambling and family entertainment that have overshadowed his many decidedly less glitzy gaming dens.
SJM's share of gaming revenue decreased from 74.7 percent in 2005, a year after the first foreign-run casino opened, to 62.2 percent in 2006 and 39.9 percent in 2007, according to the company's prospectus.
The firm's gaming proceeds actually decreased from 34.2 billion Hong Kong dollars in 2006 to 32.1 billion in 2007, the prospectus said, at a time when the city's overall take skyrocketed to exceed the Las Vegas Strip.
The nephew of one of Asia's first tycoons, Ho made his first fortune smuggling luxury goods across the Chinese border from Macau during World War II, before securing the only gaming licence in the then-Portuguese colony in 1962.
He consolidated the goldmine by running transport businesses and a racetrack, making him one of Asia's richest men.
Along the way, the keen ballroom dancer cultivated a playboy lifestyle, taking four wives and fathering at least 17 children, two of whom, Pansy and Lawrence, run rival concessions with overseas partners in Macau.
However, he has never been able to shake-off accusations that he has been associated with organised crime, despite never being charged with any offence.
Since 2002, he has been engaged in an increasingly bitter legal dispute with Winnie, a shareholder in SJM's parent company, who has taken out more than 30 lawsuits in Macau and Hong Kong against him and his firm.
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