Insight ASIA Silver Heritage Group
Tim Shepard, Executive Director, Co-Founder Silver Heritage Group
Tim is a co-founder of Silver Heritage. Silver Heritage operate casinos in Vietnam and Nepal. Today Tim manages the strategy and business development of the Group and has key responsibilities for growing the business in its existing markets as well as the development of strategic partnerships. In 2004, Tim recognized the investment opportunity in new casino gaming technologies in Indochina and launched Asia’s first sports betting lounge in a land-based casino in Laos. Tim is an acknowledged expert on the Asian gaming market, with a key focus on Indochina and South Asia and is a regular speaker at global gaming conferences. Tim was formerly a management consultant with Price Waterhouse and holds a BSc(Hons) from The City University Business School, London.
India will experience rapid growth of the Indian middle class, which is forecast to increase from around 180m in 2010 to 370m by 2020. The three Indian states bordering Nepal are estimated to have an aggregate population of over 415 million people. There have been significant increases in Indian outbound tourism, with an estimated two million Indians entering Nepal by land each year.
Silver Heritage targets sizeable opportunity with Nepal licences
Silver Heritage Group, the operator of the Phoenix International Club in Vietnam and Te Millionaire’s Club in Kathmandu’s Shangri La Hotel is floating on Sydney’s stock exchange to raise $18.6m to help finance its Tiger Palace Resort in Nepal. Tim Shepherd, Executive Director and President of Business Development for Silver Heritage explains the market opportunity and what the I.P.O. is aiming to achieve
You’ve gone on record as saying that India is the biggest untapped market in Asia. What are the factors that make the market so appealing? You are already operating in Nepal and are planning another project to tap into this. Is operating there a gamble?
Tim Shephard: Tis question is perhaps best answered by both the recent White Paper produced by credible and experienced gaming consultants, Global Market Advisors and a Frost and Sullivan independent market research document produced as part of our prospectus. In it we’ve said that India represents one of the largest untapped and materially underserved gaming markets in the world, in part due to only two Indian states, Goa and Sikkim permitting and having casinos. Nepal which has a 50 year history of licensed casino operations serves the Indian market.
In 2013 the Nepal Government introduced a set of regulations which puts it ahead of most emerging nations in Asia Pacific in terms of providing certainty and credibility of the jurisdiction for our industry – it also allowed foreign investment for the first time in the sector.
Te group considers that a cost-effective way to provide a compelling new proposition that is easily accessible by Indian gaming customers is by building substantial casino resort facilities on the border of India within Nepal. Frost & Sullivan considers that the sites of the group’s Tiger Palace Resorts are ideally positioned to meet latent demand from Indian gaming customers and that there are a number of factors that are likely to stimulate growth in the market for gaming resorts, which will be located on the India Nepal border including India’s demographics pointing
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to growth in both the size and proportion of the population in the 20 to 49 age bracket, significant gaming demand in India restricted local gaming supply in India, which is limited to the two Indian states of Goa and Sikkim whose casinos are difficult to access for many Indian customers.
India will experience rapid growth of the Indian middle class, which is forecast to increase from around 180m in 2010 to 370m by 2020. Te three Indian states bordering Nepal are estimated to have an aggregate population of over 415 million people. Tere have been significant increases in Indian outbound tourism, with an estimated two million Indians entering Nepal by land each year.
Global Market Advisors LLC (GMA) believes Mumbai alone could generate $1.1bn in gaming revenue by 2021. What will need to happen before the biggest operators in world gaming begin to look at India?
Tim Shephard: Te biggest operators in the world have been looking at it for years. Sheldon Adelson visited several years ago and asked the Indian Government to grant him a license in return for big investments in major centres. One of the main issues preventing any such investment is that foreigners are prohibited from investing directly into gaming operations in India.
Casinos Austria invested in Goa, but the fact that they pulled out some years ago shows how difficult investing in this sector is for foreign operators. Genting and Crown looked very hard at Sri Lanka and both announced large US$500m plans for investment in Colombo partnering up with existing small local casino licensees – however their plans were shelved
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