GGRAsia – Donaco says won an appeal in fight with Star Vegas vendor

Donaco says won an appeal in fight with Star Vegas vendor

Nov 13, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Asian casino operator Donaco International Ltd said in a Wednesday filing it had won the final stage of a particular court process in Cambodia linked to a long-running dispute over its Cambodia operation.

The overall dispute is with a Thai party that sold it the rights to run the Star Vegas Resort and Club in Poipet, a town on Cambodia’s border with Thailand.

The casino firm has also been pursuing legal remedies against the Thai party via processes in Singapore and Australia.

Donaco claimed in its latest filing on the matter – made to the Australian Securities Exchange – that the Thai vendor of the Star Vegas business had “conducted a campaign of legal harassment against the company” in Cambodia.

Donaco stated: “In particular, the Thai vendor has made two attempts in lower courts to seize various assets of the Star Vegas business, purportedly as security for the vendor’s claim for the financial-year 2017 management fee.”

The effort by the other side had involved attempts to freeze the Cambodian bank account of the Star Vegas business, said Donaco. It added the Thai vendor’s “attempts to seize assets were rejected by the lower courts” in Cambodia, on July 6, 2018 and January 10, 2019.

“The Thai vendor appealed the second ruling to the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh. The Appeal Court has now ruled in Donaco’s favour, and once again rejected the vendor’s claims. There is no further appeal in this matter,” the firm said in its Wednesday filing.

The Appeal Court was the same court that would rule, “in due course”, on the company’s appeal against what Donaco termed the “Cambodian lease arbitration decision”.

The firm stated: “In that matter, a further appeal will be available to the Supreme Court in Cambodia.”

Last month Donaco said it would put to a vote at its annual general meeting on November 29 an attempt by two people – Gerald Tan Eng Hoe and Patrick Tan Teck Lee – to remove all the current directors and replace them with the duo and three other named people.