Louis XIII Holdings Ltd., a real estate developer that is currently in charge of the construction of a luxurious hotel and casino venue on the Cotai Strip, shared with local media that its placing agent has managed to complete an upsize option on the shares it issued back in December 2014.
The Hong Kong-listed company announced that the upsize exercise generated a total of HK$531.1 million or US$68.5 million. Louis XIII Holdings will use the money to finance its casino project that was estimated at US$800 million.
The real estate developer placed 177,037,000 shares at a price of HK$3.00 per unit. And the company’s stock was sold at HK$3.69 per share at the opening of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange earlier today.
On Friday, January 9, Louis XIII Holdings submitted a special filing to the stock market that included information about the money raised since December 19, when the shares were placed. The total amount of almost HK$2.17 billion was collected. Of those, HK$1.56 billion were generated from a share placing exercise and additional HK$609.1 million were generated from a number of upsizing exercises that were carried out by the company’s placing agent – CLSA Ltd. also known as Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia.
As mentioned above, the Louis XIII casino and hotel project was estimated at US$800 million. A few months ago, the real estate developer shared in a special filing that it will feature a total of 66 gaming tables. Of those, 50 will be intended for mass players and the rest will be for VIP players.
The venue is to spread over a 65,000-square-foot site on the Cotai Strip, not far from Coloane. Its construction is currently underway and the resort is expected to be finished sometime in 2016.
In September 2014, Stephen Hung, owner of Louis XIII Holdings, made the headlines by purchasing thirty bespoke Rolls-Royce Phantoms for the amount of US$20 million. He justified the costs by saying that these particular automobiles will offer the comfort and the “standard of luxury” they are aiming at.
Mr. Hung’s endeavor was considered a bit inappropriate by many, due to the fact that back then, gaming revenues in Macau were falling for a third consecutive month. As previously reported, Chinese President’s anti-corruption campaign has seriously affected gambling industry in Asia’s biggest and most popular gambling hub.
The administrative region’s yearly turnover from gambling activities marked a 2.6% drop in the end of 2014 as compared to the figures posted in 2013. This was the first decrease in revenue in more than a decade.
