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Japan’s GCM agrees $500m investment in Imperial Pacific project


Japan’s GCM Ltd. has agreed to invest $500 million in the first phase of Imperial Pacific’s integrated resort on Saipan, the company says.

The first tranche of $100 million was paid on May 15, it said in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, giving no further details.

Also on Tuesday, the CNMI Lottery Commission approved two new requests from Imperial Pacific International which would allow it to bring in more investors and to build a 2,000-room report in Marpi.

According to local reports, IPI, under its parent company, sought the commission’s approval to lower its minimum controlling interest from 51 percent to 10 percent.

CLC chair Mark Rabauliman said the move will allow IPI to garner more interest from investors, and is reportedly part of IPI’s plans to bring in other partners and bring on international hotel brands for the project.

“Hopefully…the [investment] gets more diversified and grows. At the end of the day, we are here to support this growing enterprise [gaming]. …The CNMI would benefit,” he said.

According to IPI chief executive Mark Brown, there has been high interest from investors wanting to invest in their project.

“We had an event inviting about 200 investors a couple of weeks ago and there is another 100 coming in the following week.”

“There’s a lot of interest from people. …They are looking at our company and what our plans are here. …We explain our plan to them [investors] and they are very interested.”

“That’s why one of our requests is to allow us to actually offer more shares out. To have more investors and basically to have more partners coming in to Saipan so our company grows and the CNMI grows with it.”

The commission also approved a 2,000 room requirement for IPI’s soon-to-be-built hotel in Marpi.

On Tuesday, IPI also made two other requests, which had been tabled for now.

One was lowering the local-hire requirement from 65 percent to 30 percent. The company also requested an extension to extend the deadline to complete the project from Feb 28, 2021 to Aug. 21, 2022. This was, however, not discussed during the Tuesday meeting.

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