Sega Sammy Chairman and Group CEO Hajime Satomi has pointed to Tokyo as the company’s preferred location should it win a license to operate an IR in its home nation of Japan.
Answering a series of questions at a recent management meeting, the details of which were made public by Sega Sammy on Tuesday, Satomi said the company would likely be prepared to invest significantly should its IR be located in Tokyo with the goal being to own a majority share in any consortium it joins.
“Assuming we pursue development in the Tokyo metropolitan area, it is possible that it will be a large-scale project and we do not know how much the total equity share will be, but since we would like to hold the largest equity share in it, we need to ensure we have that level of investment capability,” he said.
Asked about the prospect of pursing an IR license in Osaka, considered the leading contender to win a metropolitan IR license, Satomi revealed that Sega Sammy would need to carefully consider such a move.
“As we are a Kanto-based company, we intend to keep monitoring the situation for now and think carefully about whether we should actively engage in IR development in Osaka,” he said, noting too that there were still some issues to be solved surrounding Osaka’s infrastructure development.
Nevertheless, Satomi said Sega Sammy was actively calculating potential investment levels and how necessary funding might be acquired.
“In terms of the actual investment amount, it depends on the level of internal rate of return that is set based on the presumed income amount, so we intend to evaluate the investment-return balance,” he said. “We will secure the capital required based on this by building up our net cash as well as considering financing activities such as loans.”
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