Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho's company finally began trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange Wednesday after years of delays as he tries to fend off challenges from American newcomers in the Chinese gambling enclave.
The colorful, 86-year-old billionaire hailed the listing of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, or SJM, as a triumph for his city and reached out to his U.S. rivals.
"It marks a new milestone for the company and Macau," Ho said during a ceremony at the Hong Kong bourse that he attended with one of the three women he calls his wives.
"This big cake of Macau is sufficient to be shared by the six gaming operators. There's no need to fight," he said.
The company's initial public offering and listing were postponed several times in recent years amid lawsuits and weakening market conditions.
Most recently it had been scheduled to debut last week. That was pushed back again because of last-minute legal challenges from his sister. The legal action spooked investors, and half of the offering's retail buyers withdrew before Wednesday's debut.
"Everybody knows our progress to listing wasn't smooth, but we successfully jump over the obstacles and turn every challenge into opportunities," Ho said.
In the initial public offering that began at the end of June, SJM sold a 25 percent stake, or 1.25 billion shares, raising nearly $500 million the company says will largely go toward developing new properties in Macau.
The listing price, on the bottom of the indicative range at HK$3.08, dropped about 1.3 percent Wednesday to close at HK$3.04.
Ho _ worth more than $9 billion according to Forbes magazine _ faces long odds.
Macau's casinos raked in $10.3 billion last year, and surpassed the Las Vegas Strip as the world's top gambling center two years ago.
But the territory's growth could slow in the next 12 months to 15 percent, said Billy Ng, a JPMorgan research analyst. New visa restrictions for mainland Chinese visitors, as well as competing gaming centers in Singapore and other Asian countries, could take a toll.
By far the biggest headaches for Ho are the Americans. Since losing his monopoly in Macau six years ago, he has been forced to contend with U.S. heavyweights such as Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Las Vegas Sands Corp.
As the transplants opened one Vegas-style resort after another in recent years, offering a tourist-friendly mix of gambling, shopping, expos and entertainment, Ho fell behind. Today, his company's share of an increasingly crowded market stands at an estimated 28 percent, though it still runs 19 of Macau's 29 casinos.
Meanwhile, the company's 2007 net profit fell 38 percent to about HK$1.5 billion ($192 million) from HK$2.4 billion the year before. It is projecting earnings of at least HK$559 million ($72 million) for the first half of this year.
Ho and his company are betting on a massive HK$20 billion ($2.6 billion) expansion to build new, flashier resorts and overhaul older ones.
Ho's new flagship casino _ the Grand Lisboa Hotel, a 430-room gold tower whose top resembles a giant lotus flower _ opened last year.
Another casino known for hardcore VIP gamblers, the old Lisboa property, could get a makeover with spa facilities, convention rooms, shopping malls and more slot machines.
Also in the works is Ho's first resort on the Cotai Strip area _ a piece of reclaimed land that has already drawn Sands' popular Venetian. Ho's company hopes to lure away patrons with Western touches, including bars and clubs named after Pussy Galore and other women characters from James Bond films.
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