Macau's Suncity shares more than triple after new majority shareholder named (updated)

LET group

07/07/2022 03:10

(Updates share price, adds details on company)
    HONG KONG, July 7 (Reuters) - Shares in Macau's Suncity
Group Holdings Ltd  01383.HK  more than tripled on Thursday
after they resuming trading for the first time in nearly two
months and the firm said Executive Director Andrew Lo was its
new majority shareholder.
    At 0201 GMT, the shares had given up some of the gains but
were still up 182%, valuing the company at around $130 million.
    The company's previous chairman, Alvin Chau, faces charges
including illegal gambling and money laundering and is due to be
tried in September in the world's biggest gambling hub Macau.
Chau has been detained pending his trial, while Suncity has
denied wrongdoing.
    Suncity, a Macau junket operator which brings in high
rollers to gamble in the city's VIP parlours, has been hit by a
series of blows, from Chau's arrest last year to the collapse of
Macau's VIP gambling industry.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2TY08I
    Beijing has taken aim at illegal capital outflows from the
mainland, cracking down on the opaque junket sector and
secretive banking channels.
    Macau's government has tried to rein in the role of the
junket operators with a new law barring dedicated junket rooms
in casinos. Their influence is likely to be further diluted
going forward, analysts have said.
    

 (Reporting by the Hong Kong newsroom; Editing by Jacqueline
Wong and Kenneth Maxwell)
 ((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com; +852 3462 7709;))