NagaCorp, the owner and operator of Cambodian integrated resort NagaWorld, has signed an amendment to its exclusivity agreement with the Royal Government of Cambodia extending its exclusive rights to operate casinos within a 200-kilometer radius of Phnom Penh by 10 years until 2045.
The extension relates to the initial Sihanoukville Development Agreement signed by NagaCorp and the government in 1995, and later amended in 2000 and 2005, which grants the company a license to operate casinos in Cambodia for a period of 70 years until 2065 and exclusive rights in and around Phnom Penh until 2035.
In an overnight announcement, NagaCorp revealed that those exclusivity rights have now been extended for 10 years from 1 January 2036 until 31 December 2045, with the company having made a one-off US$10 million payment to the Royal Government of Cambodia upon signing of the amended agreement. It will also pay US$3 million on an annual basis each year between 2036 and 2045.
The agreement restricts any other companies from operating casinos within 200 kilometers of Phnom Penh with the exception of the Cambodia-Vietnam border area, Bokor, the Kirirom Mountains and Sihanoukville.
“The Company believes that the signing of the Agreement and exclusivity extension till 2045 may be viewed as a long-term tourism infrastructure project which may generate recurrent revenue to the Company and its shareholders,” NagaCorp said.
“The vision of the Group is to build the largest comprehensive, multi-entertainment riverine integrated resort in the world and to position the Group as another gaming powerhouse in Asia Pacific, further securing its firm footing on the competitiveness of the Group.”
The extension follows the recent announcement by NagaCorp of its US$3.5 billion Naga3 expansion, which will increase the group’s hotel and gaming capacity by at least two times once complete in 2025.
NagaCorp said in its overnight announcement that the combined capacity of the NagaWorld complex come 2025, comprising Naga1, Naga2 and Naga3, would be roughly 5,000 hotel rooms, 1,300 gaming tables and 4,500 EGMs, placing it behind only Sands China among Asia’s major IR operators on current estimations.
