VinaCapital’s Vietnam casino project adds Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Suncity

A long-stalled casino project in Vietnam has new life after Macau junket operator Suncity Group and Hong Kong property developer Chow Tai Fook Enterprises signed on as partners.

VinaCapital Group, Vietnam’s leading investment banking firm, had originally teamed with Malaysian conglomerate Genting on a proposed $4b resort casino project in Quang Nam province. Genting withdrew from the project in 2012 and it wasn’t until last October that VinaCapital began hinting that it had finally found a suitably deep-pocketed replacement in Chow Tai Fook.

This week, Vietnam Investment Review reported that VinaCapital’s new partners include not only Chow Tai Fook but also Suncity. The report claimed the Chu Lai Economic Zone Authority of Quang Nam would issue a revised investment certificate for the project reflecting the new makeup of the development team.

Earlier this month, Suncity expressed an interest in developing its own casino on Vietnam’s Phu Quoc island. It’s unclear whether this interest has waned as a result of the Quang Nam project.