\nJan. 29 (Bloomberg) — Lui Che-woo became Asia\u2019s second- richest person by setting up a casino company that within a decade became the world\u2019s third-biggest by market value. The 84- year-old says he\u2019s just hitting his stride.
\n\t\u201cWhat can I do if I retire, watch the sun rise and set?\u201d said the chairman of Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. who first made his fortune in construction and also owns 13 hotels in the U.S., including seven Hiltons. \u201cI want to do something meaningful. I don\u2019t want to just sit there waiting to die.\u201d
\n\tLui, the richest person in Asia after Hong Kong property tycoon Li Ka-Shing, plans to expand his business empire beyond Macau and said he\u2019s open to acquiring U.S. casinos. Meanwhile, Galaxy, which is spending about $10 billion to expand its gambling resort in the former Portuguese colony, may also invest HK$10 billion ($1.3 billion) in nearby Hengqin island, said Lui. He also plans to set up a charity to build schools in China.
\n\tGalaxy runs six out of 35 casinos in Macau, where casino revenue surged 19 percent to $45 billion last year, about seven times that of the Las Vegas Strip. After a more than sixfold increase in net income in the three years through 2012, the company seeks to repeat its success outside Macau, where the industry faces land and labor constraints in a city about half the size of Manhattan.
\n\tNet Worth
\n\t\u201cWe don\u2019t miss out on great opportunities,\u201d Lui said in a Jan. 23 interview in his office with a commanding view of Hong Kong\u2019s east Kowloon, which includes land reclaimed with rocks from his quarries. \u201cWe\u2019d love to expand, especially after our resorts that combine casino, entertainment shows, arts and shopping have proved to be successful.\u201d
\n\tLui\u2019s net worth has risen to $23 billion, anchored by his family\u2019s 51 percent stake in Galaxy, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Galaxy\u2019s share price more than doubled last year in Hong Kong trading, beating the benchmark Hang Seng Index\u2019s 2.9 percent advance. The stock slipped 2.4 percent to close at HK$74.40 today.
\n\tGalaxy would consider investing at least $2.6 billion in Japan or Taiwan each if those markets open up, Lui\u2019s eldest son Francis, who runs the company as deputy chairman, said in November.
\n\tBusiness leaders including Lawson Inc. Chief Executive Officer Takeshi Niinami are forming a group backing casinos in Japan, and Osaka Prefecture Governor Ichiro Matsui this month said their legalization is \u201cjust a matter of time.\u201d Lawson is Japan\u2019s second-biggest convenience-store chain.
\n\tFloor Area
\n\tTo complement its casino business, Lui said Galaxy intends to build sports-related facilities and hotels in Hengqin, an island next to Macau that\u2019s connected by bridge. He declined to discuss possible acquisition targets in the U.S.
\n\tIn Macau, Galaxy is allowed to build a maximum floor area of 2 million square meters (21.5 million square feet) on the Cotai strip, the most among the city\u2019s six casino operators. The company plans to quadruple the size of its existing Galaxy Macau resort on Cotai, Asia\u2019s equivalent of the Las Vegas Strip, by 2018.
\n\tThe company\u2019s net income for last year was probably HK$9.93 billion, according to the average of 20 analysts\u2019 estimates compiled by Bloomberg, 35 percent more than in 2012.
\n\tLui\u2019s Galaxy Macau opened in May 2011 with more than 2,000 hotel rooms. The company is spending HK$20 billion on its second phase, due to open next year, with as much as HK$60 billion more earmarked for the third and fourth phases.
\n\tDark Horse
\n\tWhile his StarWorld, opened in 2006, caters to high rollers who typically wager $1 million per visit and veteran gamblers who eschew the frills in other casinos, Lui says he now sees greater potential in China\u2019s rising middle class.
\n\tLui\u2019s company was a \u201cdark horse\u201d in the industry before it opened Galaxy Macau as he had no track record of running a large-scale resort, said Kenny Lau, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG. \u201cYou could say Lui Che-woo is very bold. He is placing a much bigger bet on Macau than his competitors at a time when Macau is already seven times bigger than Las Vegas.\u201d
\n\tGalaxy\u2019s share price is about 30 times estimated earnings, second-highest of the six Macau casino operators listed in Hong Kong. That\u2019s higher than the 24.8 ratio for Las Vegas Sands Corp., the world\u2019s biggest casino company by market value.
\n\tGalaxy and competitors including Sands China Ltd., Wynn Macau Ltd. and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. are building lavish casino resorts that combine malls, theaters and concert halls to attract vacationing families who provide fatter margins.
\n\tGang War
\n\tFor four decades, Stanley Ho held a monopoly in Macau, the only place in the world\u2019s most populous country where casinos are legal. In the 1990s, smoke-filled gambling halls were dimly lit, and prostitutes and loan sharks patrolled the entrances. In 1999, 40 people died in what law enforcement authorities said was a gang war among Chinese organized crime groups, called triads.
\n\tThe Macau government ended Ho\u2019s monopoly and granted licenses to rivals that included Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Las Vegas Sands Corp. in 2002.
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s different now,\u201d said Lui, who has three sons and two daughters helping to run his businesses. \u201cPeople can now bring their whole families to casino resorts in Macau.\u201d
\n\tLasting Serenity
\n\tGalaxy\u2019s founder, who never finished high school, said he plans to set up a charity foundation to fund schools and universities in China.
\n\tLui was forced to drop out of school as a teenager during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in World War II, according to the book \u201cLasting Serenity,\u201d a collection of his speeches and letters.
\n\tHe declined to say how much of his fortune he will donate. Lui has funded scholarships, teaching and research centers at universities in Hong Kong and China, including Fudan University in Shanghai, Chinese University of Hong Kong and University of Macau. In 2005, he pledged HK$45 million to help build and renovate 150 primary schools in China.
\n\tLui was born in 1929, in the city of Jiangmen in China\u2019s Guangdong province, and his family fled to Hong Kong during the Chinese Civil War in 1934. He helped support his family by selling food on the streets at the age of 13, before he entered the construction business by trading equipment left in Japan by the U.S. military after World War II.
\n\t200 Subsidiaries
\n\tAt 26, Lui founded K. Wah Group, which later diversified into building materials, gambling, property and hotel development. Construction materials from his firms are in one of every three buildings in Hong Kong, he estimated during the interview.
\n\tThe group has more than 200 subsidiaries, including Hong Kong-traded property developer K. Wah International Holdings Ltd. and closely held Stanford Hotels Corp. and Cresleigh Homes Corp. in the U.S.
\n\tTo stay healthy, Lui gets up early to play golf almost every morning and goes to bed before 10 p.m. He also enjoys swimming and playing mah-jongg.
\n\tThe billionaire, who wears hats to keep warm, particularly in Hong Kong\u2019s air-conditioned offices, uses a seven-seater Toyota minivan for his daily commutes.
\n\t\u201cMy son Francis offered to buy me a Rolls Royce Phantom but I refused,\u201d according to Lui, who said he prefers simple meals such as vegetables and pork. His favorite dish is wonton noodles.
\n\tHe isn\u2019t always thrifty. Lui said he just bought a 200-foot long yacht, which is on its way from the U.S. to Hong Kong.
\n\t–Editors: Frank Longid, Patrick Chu, Lena Lee<\/p>\n
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Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — Lui Che-woo became Asia\u2019s second- richest person by setting up a casino company that within a decade became the world\u2019s third-biggest by market value. The 84- year-old says he\u2019s just hitting his stride. \u201cWhat can I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}