Silver Heritage Group, the Australian-listed gaming investor operating two casinos in Nepal, has entered voluntary administration.
The company announced on Monday that it had appointed KPMG as administrators following the global outbreak of COVID-19, which saw its Nepal casinos forced to suspend operations just months after being granted much-needed funding by its main lender, OCP Asia.
Silver Heritage had also been seeking other options for boosting liquidity, including the possible sale of its Nepal assets – Tiger Palace Resort Bhairahawa and The Millionaire’s Club in Kathmandu.
According to its announcement, “The company had been exploring options to generate liquidity and prior to the emergence of COVID-19 had received expressions of interest from several parties in respect of possible transactions.
“However, as a result of the emergence of COVID-19 and the forced temporary closure of the company’s facilities in Nepal, the timing in relation to consummating one of the transactions has become uncertain.”
Silver Heritage said it had also been advised by OCP Asia that it was unwilling to provide any further support to the company.
“The Board of Directors regret that these events have come to pass and acknowledge all the Group’s employees for their hard work and contribution,” it said.
Silver Heritage has faced multiple hurdles in recent years, including lengthy delays to the launch of Tiger Palace in December 2017 which blew the budget out by around US$12 million.
The company then suffered a crippling blow in March 2019 when casino operations at Phoenix International Club in Vietnam, where Silver Heritage provided gaming management services, were shut down due to amendments to the property’s Investment Certificate which no longer allowed for the operation of gaming tables.
Phoenix had accounted for around 45% of the company’s group-wide revenue in 2018.
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