In Macau, the long-running legal battle over who owns the empty Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel has reportedly been solved after a local court ruled in favor of an entity known as, Empresa Hoteleira de Macau.
According to a Friday report from MacauBusiness.com, citing data acquired by the Macau News Agency, the land ’s Court of First Instance issued a decision on June 15 that gave ownership of the venue to Empresa Hoteleira de Macau on the understanding of rival company, Victory Success Holdings Limited.
The two companies have reportedly been contesting possession of this hotel since going their separate ways in 2012, with the most recent legal actions having been pioneered by the man behind Empresa Hoteleira de Macau, Ng Man Sun, amid claims that his company has possessed the Taipa venue since 1996. The local casino magnate also serves as Chairman for Hong Kong-listed, Amax International Holdings, which retains a 24.8% stake in the prior operator of the land ’s, Greek Mythology Casino, Greek Mythology (Macau) Entertainment Group Corporation Limited.
MacauBusiness.com reported that the Chinese-language Macao Daily paper had printed a narrative in 2016 declaring that the previous year had seen Empresa transfer ownership of their house to Victory Success Holdings Limited in order to repay a debt. However, Ng disregarded the claims shortly after by stating the announcement had been made by the rival company in order to influence the outcome of the ownership lawsuit.
Last year saw Empresa Hoteleira de Macau return its license for its Beijing Imperial Palace Hotel, which was formerly known as the New Century Hotel, to the Macao Government Tourism Office before Andrew Lo, Executive Director for Victory Success Holdings Limited parent Suncity Group Holdings Limited, declared in May that his company would be taking over the Beijing Imperial Hotel in advance of procuring a new certificate.
MacauBusiness.com reported that Ng had promptly countered by obtaining an injunction from Suncity from the Court of First Instance that had arranged the rival company to fully vacate the land, which was shuttered from the Macao Government Tourism Office in July of 2016 to get failing to complete a series of renovations by an agreed deadline.
In its most recent ruling, the Court of First Instance invalidated the alleged 2016 move since Victory Success Holdings Limited had only ‘pretended to have held a general meeting meeting’ to approve the offer. As such, it judged that Beijing Imperial was possessed by Empresa Hoteleira de Macau since 2015 with the company having paid all safety, power, rent and water expenses.
