Lawrence Ho Yau Lung has gained the majority of the directors on the board of Tigre de Cristal operator Oriental Regent Ltd via its fully owned entity Summit Ascent Russia Ltd. Moreover, in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the gaming group revealed that the results of the operator would be consolidated into the ones of Summit Ascent Holdings for accounting purposes.

The Russian-based property had a soft opening on the 8th of October last year, and was officially opened to customers on 11th of November the same year. In the period between the soft opening and the last day of 2015, Tigre de Cristal generated Ascent Holding adjusted EBITDA of $1.8 million (HKD14.3 million). The company controls 60% of the casino, whereas the other partners are: Taiwan-based Firich Enterprises Co Ltd (25%), Oleg Drozdov via his City Ewalth Group (7.5%), Melco International Development Ltd via New Crescent Investments Ltd (5%) and Perfect Giant Investments Ltd (2.5%).

In the latest filing, the Lawrence Ho unit revealed that out of seven directors in total to hold seats in the enlarged board of Oriental Regent, four will be assigned by Summit Ascent Russia. Before these changes, the company could nominate only two out of five directors of the operator. Additional information from the filing that attracted attention was the growth in “price and trading volume of the company’s shares,” even though the directors couldn’t provide any reasons for the movements.

Tigre de Cristal casino is a property near the port of Vladivostok in the Primorsky Krai and works under the licence held by G1 Entertainment LLC. The luxurious facility features 67 table games and 498 gaming machines as well as two poker tables.