Gaming

The Destination Brisbane Consortium, a joint venture between the Group, The Star and Chow Tai Fook Group, entered into development agreements with the Queensland State, Australia for the delivery of the Queen's Wharf, Brisbane Project.

The Group has 50% stake of the residential component and 25% stake of the integrated resort component (excluding the Ritz-Carlton Hotel) of the project.

The project’s integrated resort and residential components encompass a total area of approximately 9.4 hectares. (2,940,000 sq. ft.), with approximately 1,290,000 over land and 1,650,000 over water.  It consists of three residential towers totaling approximately 2,000 rooms, 4 world class hotels, high end food and commercial outlets and a casino, all in Brisbane’s prime waterfront district.

The QWB Project brings together the Group’s experience in international hospitality operation and mixed-use development, CTF’s extensive VIP customer base in Mainland China and Asian markets, and The Star’s operational experience in integrated resorts. The QWB Project is expected to contribute significantly to the Group’s recurring cash flow stream while adding to its residential development pipeline.

Given the project’s ideal location and each Consortium party’s track record and expertise, the Queen’s Wharf Brisbane project is an opportunity for each Consortium party to be involved in one of Brisbane’s most important developments and subsequently, propelling the city into the spotlight as an international tourist destination.

In March 2018, The Group, Chow Tai Fook Group ("CTF") and The Star Entertainment Group Limited ("The Star") entered into an agreement under which the parties will form a strategic alliance to facilitate mutual business growth and enable each party to benefit from each other's capabilities and scale and to leverage each party's experience and expertise to assist in the future growth and development of each of the parties' business, including in respect of the development of and participation in the future developments of The Star and other nominated developments, and the provision of certain marketing services.

Strategic benefits to the Group from this investment and the strategic alliance agreement are:

(i) strengthening the Group’s well established relationship with The Star;

(ii) forging partnership with The Star for potential mixed-use property projects to add to the Group’s Australian development pipeline;

(iii) increasing the Group’s exposure to the Queen’s Wharf project;

(iv) benefitting from The Star’s future growth;

(v) benefiting from cross-selling, which is synergistic to the Group’s gaming platform, and

(vi) increasing cash flow from The Star’s future dividend distribution, which is based on a dividend payout of at least 70% of normalized net profit after tax.

The Group completed the acquisition of Trans World Corporation ("TWC") on 30 April 2018 and rebranded as Palasino in FY2022. Revenue from Palasino owns and operates a portfolio of 3 casinos in Czech Republic. All the casinos of Palasino feature gaming tables and slot machines and are situated on the Czech borders with Germany and Austria catering to cross-border guests from these countries. With the Group’s implementation of the “Asian Wallet” strategy, the Group will endeavor to introduce Asian customers to Palasino’s properties to supplement the Group’s hospitality offerings geographically.

Palasino primarily engages in the hospitality and gaming business in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. It currently owns and operates quality assets with a portfolio of five hotels in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, as well as three full-services casinos in the Czech Republic. All feature gaming tables, slot machines, baccarat rolling programmes and poker games, all of which have brought strong recurring income.