Suncity Group Holdings, an offshoot of Asia’s largest casino junket operator, has boosted its stake in Russia’s largest casino operator to a majority position.

On June 1, Hong Kong-listed Suncity Group Holdings, which is controlled by Alvin Chau (pictured), boss of privately held junket Suncity Group, announced that it and its wholly owned subsidiary Victor Sky were boosting their combined stake in Summit Ascent Holdings from 24.74% to 69.78%. The cost of the transaction is roughly HK$1.24b (US$160m).

Summit Ascent operates the Tigre de Cristal casino in Russia’s far east Primorye gaming zone outside Vladivostok. Suncity bought a small stake in Summit Ascent in 2018, then boosted that to nearly 28% one year ago, after which Chau was named chairman of Summit Ascent.

Summit Ascent also announced plans to increase its share capital to HK$150m divided into 6b shares from HK$80m divided into 3.2b shares. The company expects to raise around HK$1.63b via these transactions, of which around HK$600m will go toward construction of Tigre de Cristal’s Phase II development.