January 25, 2011
HONG KONG (AFP) - Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho has transferred the bulk of his stake in flagship SJM Holdings to relatives, the firm said Monday, the latest in a succession plan at his gaming empire.
The 89-year-old billionaire, who has suffered from ill health in recent years, transferred all but 100 shares of his 31.7 percent stake in Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau, SJM's parent company, to companies controlled by family members, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing.
He no longer has an "attributable interest" in the casino operator, it said.
SJM shares were suspended from trading Monday pending the announcement, and closed down about four percent at HK$13.8 ($1.77) after trading resumed.
Ho -- a keen ballroom dancer who had four wives and fathered at least 17 children -- was hospitalised in mid-2009 for unspecified reasons and released several months later, raising questions about his ability to run the company.
Two of his children, Pansy and Lawrence, run rival concessions with overseas partners in Macau.
The share transfer comes less than a month after SJM said Ho's fourth wife, Angela Leong, had replaced him as managing director.
"We are not really surprised by the transfer of shares as he is simply passing on his shares to his family members," Aaron Fischer, a gaming analyst at brokerage CLSA, told AFP.
"If anything, the news might be positive because it removes some uncertainty (about Ho's succession)," he added.
SJM controls about 17 casinos and several hotels in Macau, the only city in China where casino gambling is allowed.
Ho made his first fortune smuggling luxury goods across the Chinese border from Macau during World War II, before securing the only gaming licence in the then-Portuguese colony in 1962.
He ran a monopoly on Macau's casinos until 2002, when foreign operators such as US-based Wynn and Las Vegas Sands were allowed to move in, sparking a boom in the city's revenues.
Macau's casinos raked about $23.5 billion in gaming revenue last year, about four-times higher than the $6 billion that gamblers are thought to have spent on the Las Vegas Strip in 2010.
