by: Gene Koprowski.
Phnom Penh-based casino operator Naga Corp. Ltd., said is considering licensing access to the Cambodian market to foreign companies, allowing foreigners to develop new gaming properties there.
“NagaCorp may consider any sub concession proposal when the timing is right,” chief executive officer Tan Sri Chen Lip Keong, 60, said.
Today, Naga Corp. has a total monopoly to operate casinos within a 200 kilometer radius of the capital. That monopoly lasts until 2035, but is not subject to any restrictions on marketing secondary licenses. Chen owns 62% of NagaCorp.
Naga Corp. is Cambodia’s only publicly traded company. The government there was taken over by Communists in the 1970s. But the entrepreneurial firm is betting on growing wealth at home and in the neighboring countries of Thailand and Vietnam to increase its revenue base. Most customers for the casinos in Cambodia today come from China, Malaysia and Singapore.
“As bigger regional players focus on the higher end, we expect NagaCorp will maintain its niche in the mass-end VIP segment,” said Gavin Ho, a Hong Kong-based gambling analyst at CLSA Ltd.
Gambling is expanding throughout many parts of Asia. Singapore awarded bids for two casino resorts in 2006, cutting taxes on gaming revenue to the world’s lowest for so-called high-rollers. Japan and Taiwan are also considering allowing casinos in an effort to boost tourism.
NagaCorp serves “regional" gamblers taken to its casino by junket operators, who provided about 45 percent of its gaming revenue last year, CEO Chen said.
About 52 percent of revenue comes from the public casino floor. The casino’s revenue rose 69 percent to $144 million in 2007.
“We are not competing head on with those high rollers in Macau,” Chen said.
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