Behind every billionaire there is a story!

Ho aims to raise $1bn with casino flotation

Stanley Ho, the Macao tycoon, is launching his gaming company’s longdelayed initial public offering as he seeks to fend off overseas challengers in the world’s largest gambling market.

Mr Ho’s gaming company, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, will apply to the Hong Kong stock exchange for approval to raise at least $1bn, according to people familiar with the matter.

The IPO, which is expected in January, is being arranged by Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and CLSA. However, people involved in the deal warned that the formal IPO process was just beginning.

“This thing is not going to come to market before Christmas,” one person close to the situation said. “There’s still a lot of work to do.”

Mr Ho has dominated Macao’s gaming market, which last year eclipsed the Las Vegas strip to become the world’s largest, for more than 40 years.

Gross betting revenues in the former Portuguese enclave, which reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1999, reached $7.2bn in 2006 - and then exceeded that total in the first nine months of this year.

But Mr Ho’s position in the territory has been under threat since 2002, when the government decided to break up his monopoly.

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