South Shore Holdings has applied to the Macau court for voluntary liquidation of its wholly-owned subsidiary New Concordia Hotel Limited, the sole beneficial owner of THE 13 Hotel.
The application comes as South Shore faces increasing pressure from its lenders to repay mounting debts, including a statutory demand issued by one lender earlier this month demanding payment of HK$3.28 billion (US$423 million) in outstanding loans and interest or face a winding up petition against the company.
Another lender terminated the ongoing renewal of a bridging loan last month on money owed of HK$593 million (US$76.5 million), while also exercising its rights under the original loan agreement to assume ownership of the subsidiary that holds South Shore’s engineering arm, Paul Y. Engineering Group Limited.
Having called a trading halt on Tuesday, South Shore announced late Wednesday night (Macau time) that it had asked the Macau court for voluntary liquidation of New Concordia Hotel Limited, a company incorporated in Macau on 30 March 2009 and with a paid-up share capital of MOP$25,000 (US$3,125).
“After the debts and liabilities of the Subsidiary are settled, the remaining assets of the subsidiary will be distributed to its shareholders,” South Shore said.
“The Board will assess and seek further and appropriate legal advice on the impact of the Voluntary Liquidation.”
It is unclear exactly what the voluntary liquidation means for THE 13 Hotel itself, although South Shore has made no secret of its desire to sell the troubled property.
The brainchild of long-departed Chairman Stephen Hung, THE 13 had been envisioned as an uber-luxury hotel with space for 66 VIP gaming tables aimed at capitalizing on Macau’s booming VIP segment of the early 2010s. Instead, a series of funding and construction delays saw the property open in September 2018 with no gaming and with a number of rooms unfinished – all at a cost of US$1.6 billion.
New Concordia itself has raised some funds in recent times via the sale of most of its fleet of 30 Rolls-Royce Phantoms, purchased in 2016 at a cost of US$20 million. Twenty-four of those Phantoms were sold for a combined HK$24 million in 2019 to repay debts, while another was sold earlier this year for HK$3.5 million (US$450,000).
