Cell Aquaculture abandons plan to acquire Cambodia's Roxy Casino

Australia-listed Cell Aquaculture said it has terminated a deal to acquire Cambodian gaming operator, Roxy Casino, citing difficulties in employing staff.
The Roxy Casino, located in Bavet City in Svay Rieng Province, just 200 metres from the Vietnam border, was opened on August 14 this year, operating 24-hours a day gaming activities.
But in an announcement to the stock exchange, the company said the vendors and directors agreed to terminate the deal, "after lengthy discussions," due to the difficulties Roxy faced in "identifying and employing skilled management personnel."
The problems were especially acute in the accounting area, with additional complications in finding those willing to relocate to Bavet.
"This inability to appoint staff has caused difficulties with Roxy providing monthly reports to the company, during the due diligence process" and providing meaningful budgets and 24 month expenditure and working capital estimates.
Company secretary Deborah Ho said Cell Aquaculture had "come to the view that Roxy was not currently ready for public company life," due to its failure to meet stock exchange reporting requirements "in a timely fashion".
The casino was described as having a main gaming hall with 15 gaming tables and nine online gaming tables, offering Baccarat, Two-Card Poker, Three Card Poker and Four Card Poker.
A premium gaming area has five gaming tables offering high stakes games such as Baccarat. Also on offer are 14 slot machines linked to jackpots, two 8-player Electronic Roulette machines and a sports betting area for viewing and placing bets on international soccer leagues.