Hong Kong-listed SJM Holdings Limited said in a statement yesterday that STDM, its controlling shareholder, had agreed to grant it an unsecured term loan of HK$2 billion.
“The loan is for a fixed period of six years from the date of drawdown and attracts interest of 4 percent per annum,” the statement said,
STDM will, according to the statement, provide the loan to SJM Holdings to enable the company to invest in its principal subsidiary, SJM Resorts, as part of the increase in share capital which SJM Resorts is required to have to pre-qualify for the public tender by which the Macau government may grant SJM Resort a 10-year gaming concession commencing on January 1, 2021.
At the same time, the statement pointed out, SJM Holdings has launched a rights issue by which it proposes to raise net proceeds of up to about HK$2.93 billion.
The statement quoted Daisy Ho Chiu Fung, chairperson and executive director of SJM Holdings, as saying that “both the loan and the rights issue bolster the company’s balance sheet position and liquidity and will place SJM Resorts in a strong position to participate in the tender for new Macau gaming concessions later this year.”
STDM, which was co-founded by Stanley Ho Hung Sun in 1962, held Macau’s gaming concession monopoly until the sector’s liberalisation in 2002, when it set up SJM Holdings which took over its casinos.
