MACAO - Billionaire Stanley Ho said his legal dispute with family members over ownership of their Macao gambling business has been resolved, and he has withdrawn his lawsuit, driving up SJM Holdings Ltd's shares.
A settlement agreement was executed on Tuesday among all branches of Ho's family on the basis of "mutual understanding and mutual accommodation", according to a statement from the casino tycoon's office.
The Grand Lisboa Hotel in Macao, which is owned by the casino billionaire Stanley Ho. [Photo/Agencies]
Ho's privately held Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macao SA invests in construction, hotels and Macao's airline, and also owns a controlling stake in SJM, Asia's biggest casino company. Ho had earlier said daughters Pansy Ho and Daisy Ho seized his 31.7 percent holding that's worth at least HK$12.5 billion ($1.6 billion), using Friday's share price for SJM."We have agreed that we shall work together and continue to develop the gambling business in Macao founded by Dr Ho and operated by the Ho family to enable it to flourish," Stanley Ho and his family wrote in the statement. He said he'd withdrawn a writ filed on Feb 16 against the daughters.
SJM, which operates most of the casinos in Macao, advanced as much as 8.3 percent to HK$13.10, the most since March 1, before trading at HK$12.92 at the 12 pm break on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday. The stock had lost 12 percent from Jan 24, when SJM said Ho's holdings had been transferred to family members, through Thursday.
"This should remove the overhang for SJM shares, which have been very weak since the dispute began," said Aaron Fischer, a casino analyst at CLSA Ltd in Hong Kong. "It is in the best interests of all Ho family members that this matter is finalized."
The Ho family members agreed to discharge their duties to the family companies, the closely held STDM and the publicly traded SJM, according to the statement. The dispute was resolved "amicably", the family said in the statement.
"We all have balanced participation in SJM and STDM," Angela Leong, the executive director of the Hong Kong-listed casino operator and the mother of Ho's five youngest children, said in a TV interview without disclosing details. "We have understanding and courtliness to each other, and we are satisfied with this result."
The structure of SJM's board of directors will not change, she said.
"Three weeks of negotiation is always preferable to years of litigation," Ho's lawyer, Gordon Oldham, of Oldham, Li & Nie, said on Friday. "We were tasked with bringing a resolution to this family dispute and I'm glad we were able to be part of achieving that."
The Feb 16 lawsuit sought an order declaring that the transfer of 99.98 percent of the shares in Lanceford, which owns 31.7 percent of STDM, was made without Stanley Ho's approval.
Pansy Ho and Daisy Ho "improperly and/or illegally" transferred the Lanceford stake to a company they control along with their siblings and another controlled by Chan Un-chan, whom Ho refers to as his third wife, according to the writ.
SJM, which has the biggest share of Macao's casino market, "welcomes the reported settlement of the dispute and is of the view that there will be no material change in management or strategic direction", it said in a statement on Friday.
Ho built his fortune over five decades after Macao's colonial government granted him and his partners a gambling monopoly in 1962. The monopoly wasn't renewed after 2001 and Macao eventually allowed rivals, including Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corp and Wynn Resorts Ltd, founded by billionaire Steve Wynn.
Ho and his family still take in more than 50 cents of every dollar bet in Macao.
Bloomberg News
