Mario Ho Fails to Silence Wakayama IR Misgivings

Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The appearance on March 17 of Mario Ho and other representatives of the Clairvest Group-led consortium aiming to build the ¥470 billion (US$4 billion) Integrated Resort (IR) including a casino in Wakayama city failed to quell the misgivings of some members of the IR Countermeasures Special Committee of the Wakayama Prefectural Assembly.

Clairvest is gradually filling some of the details about the shape of the consortium and its financing arrangements, but even at the eleventh hour information gaps remain.

What is currently public is that 30% of the needed construction funds—¥145 billion (US$1.2 billion)—are expected to come from the direct investment of the partners, and the remaining 70%—¥325 billion (US$2.8 billion)—is to be covered by borrowing.

The facts are not entirely clear with regard to either portion.

As for the investment segment, 27.5% is expected to be put up by Clairvest Neem Ventures, 27.5% by the Canadian mother company Clairvest Group, 5% by casino giant Caesars Entertainment, and 40% by “minority shareholders.”

And who exactly are these minority shareholders? Nishimatsu Construction is the only one that has been specifically named, and it is not clear how much money they would be investing.

Similarly, there are now three financial institutions that have been named in regard to the provision of loans—Credit Suisse, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Hanwha Investment & Securities—but it is not evident exactly how much they would loan to the project, and it does not appear that they have yet made firm commitments beyond letters of intent.

Nevertheless, Mario Ho (a son of the late Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho) gave an upbeat account to the committee through a video link from China, declaring that he has full confidence in the plan.

Ho also promised that if construction expenses turned out to be greater than anticipated, or other similar problems emerged, then he would not seek compensation from the taxpayers of the prefecture.

“I decided to move forward after understanding the political risks,” he says.

Takeshi Kaji of Clairvest Neem Ventures, when asked about the impact of the Covid pandemic, speculated that the local economy will likely pick up by the latter half of this decade when the facility opens its doors.

Wakayama Governor Yoshinobu Nisaka, who has been the main booster for IR development since the beginning, pronounced himself satisfied, telling the committee, “The certainty of the investment has increased considerably. I think this will work.”

Others are not so sure. Committee Chairman Masaki Fujiyama said, “The plan is moving forward, but I want them to respond more sincerely and to make it a more concrete and persuasive plan.”

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