Summit Ascension Major Investor Eyes Sell $55M Stake

The largest single shareholder of Hong Kong-listed Summit Ascent Holdings, the promoter of Russian casino resort Tigred Crystal, is considering divesting its stake from an undisclosed suitor.

Major investor, conglomerate First Steamship Limited, confirmed in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday that First Steamship had been approached "by a third party" regarding the matter, as reported by Summit Ascent earlier this month. First Steamship said the suitor could be an "existing shareholder or strategic investor."

Taiwan Group will realize at least HK$429 million (US$54.7 million) from the transaction if it achieves an asking price of HK$1.50 per share (US$0.191) in its filing on Monday, representing a profit of about HK$123 million, excluding taxes and other related processing costs from its original investment.

First Steamship confirmed in a regulatory release on Monday that it owned 286,048,000 shares (about 19.22%) in Summit Ascent.

The Taiwanese company told local exchanges that "no final decision has been made" on a possible disposal, but the board said it had named chairman Jerry Guo Jianhao to lead the negotiations.

Guo is also the chairman and non-executive director of Summit Ascent, after First Steamship first acquired a 12.67% stake in Casino Promoter since December 2017. The investment was made through Heritage Rich Inc., a subsidiary of First Steamship. First Steamship increased its stake in Summit Ascent in October 2018, securing a stake of about 286 million shares now.

First Steamship was announced as an investor in Summit Ascent on the same day, the latter reported that Asian casino businessman Lawrence Hoyaou Lung planned to sell 20 million shares of Summit Ascent, ending his role as a direct shareholder of Summit Ascent.

First Steam Ship spokesperson and chief financial officer Lee Si-ming confirmed to Taiwanese media on Monday the company's hoped price for the disposal of its stake in Summit Ascension.

Lee indicated that he may not want to make long-term investments in Summit Accent. He said that despite the positive mid- to long-term outlook for the Tigre de Crystal property, Summit Accent may not be paying dividends any time soon because it was planning to invest heavily in the second phase of construction at the resort.

The Taiwanese-listed company now operates shipping as well as department stores in several second and third-tier cities in mainland China under the brand "Grand Ocean."

Summit Ascent last month reported a profit of HK$7.6 million for the full calendar year of 2018, about HK$13.8 million from a year earlier. Summit Ascent said in its March results it would soon revise its design and financing of Phase 2 of Tigred Crystal and aimed to open in summer 2021.

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