Supplier News
South Korea – Genting teams up with Lotte for fresh South Korean proposal
By Phil - 10 July 2015
Lotte Group, a multinational food and shopping corporation with headquarters in South Korea and Japan, has said it is teaming up with Genting Group, in a bid to develop a large casino resort at the North Port of Busan in South Korea.
The company has lodged a proposal for the development project with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. It currently has 34 proposals for casino resorts including Lotte’s, and will be selecting two to move forward with.
A ministry official said: “The Busan Port Authority has completed the engineering works on the port with four large cruise ship berths. As Lotte Group’s base is Busan, it seems the group picked the North Port for its casino complex project’s location in consideration of regional development.”
Genting Group is working with Lotte Group as legislation dictates that the foreigner-only casino plans must include a local company.
Lotte Group is looking to build hotels, tax-free stores and water-sports facilities at the resort
Other companies that have lodged interest with the ministry include Sun City, Galaxy, Nagacorp the Korea Water Resources Corporation, Grand Korea Leisure, Hong Kong based Imperia Pacific International Holdings, Global Game Asset Management and Mohegan Sun.
The South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will announce the results of the tender by November.
DS Kim and Daisy Lu, from JP Morgan Securities, said: “According to media, MCST will review these proposals and select ‘around two’ potential sites in August, followed by a full request for proposal process by November. MSCT targets to issue around two integrated resort casino licences by the end of 2015.”
Genting opened the Genting Jeju casino at the Hyatt Regency hotel on Jeju Island earlier this year, having bought the venture. Genting purchased the property for US$117.2m. The move to buy an existing casino saw the Genting brand enter Jeju earlier than expected following delays to its $2.2bn Resorts World Jeju, a project where it is teaming up with Landing International.
