Land deal between China Star and CSI progressing

Hong Kong-listed gaming services firm China Star Entertainment Ltd. has revealed that it has not yet entered the supplemental property leasehold rights agreement with purchaser Bestmix Holdings Ltd. According to a filing by China Star on Tuesday after trading hours, the leasehold right agreement had to be executed on or before January 27 by China Star, Bestmix Holdings and Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, S.A., a gaming company owned by tycoon Stanley Ho Hung San. The deadline for the leasehold rights agreement, one of the satisfactions to complete the whole disposal agreement, has now been extended to February 28, the filing said. The purchaser of the land, Bestmix Holdings, is 51 per cent owned by Hong Kong-listed property development company CSI Properties Ltd. The deal, according to a filing by China Star in November, involves an initial consideration of HK$2.23 billion (US$287.5 million). Meanwhile, the gaming firm estimates that it would realise a gain of HK$1.65 billion from the disposal. The four plots of lands involved in the deal are adjacent to Hotel Lan Kwai Fong, Macau Polytechnic Institute, Forum de Macao and Golden Lotus Square, of which the property leasehold rights are held by China Star’s subsidiary Triumph Top Ltd. The subsidiary of China Star purchased the plots of land for HK550 million from STDM in 2010. In fact, the firm originally planned to develop the four plots of land into a luxury residential and commercial complex but said in its November filing that ‘the Macau Government requires a longer time to study the impact of the proposed development of the properties as combined sites on traffic, the environment and cultural heritage in the surrounding area before the grant of an approval.’ K.L.