Silver Heritage Group Ltd (SHG) out of Australia announced last Monday that Richard Barker has suddenly resigned from his position as a non-executive director, effectively immediately. In conjunction with the resignation, Barker won’t seek reelection during SHG’s annual general meeting, scheduled for the day after tomorrow.
In a filing with the Australian Securities Exchange, SHG reported that Barker resigned in order to “focus on other business interests.” According to the SHG corporate website, Barker has been an executive who “specialized in mergers and acquisitions, capital raisings and corporate financial advice.” The company’s filing stated, “The board of directors thanks [Mr.] Barker for his input and efforts during his tenure as a director.”
Barker’s departure marked the second seen by SHG this month. David Green, who was the company’s chairman and a non-executive director, resigned last May 7. SHG cited the same “personal reasons” as they did for Barker when Green resigned.
SHG operates a new Nepalese property, Tiger Palace Resort Bhairahawa, close to Nepal’s border with Uttar Pradesh in India. The property is one of three run by the boutique casino operator, along with the Phoenix International Club near Hanoi, Vietnam and the Millionaire’s Club and Casino in Kathmandu.
At the beginning of this month, SHG reported a decline in revenue for the first quarter of the year. Its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization) was in the red, with a loss of $1.9 million for the period. SHG’s table hold percentage at the Phoenix declined from 24.8% for all of 2017 to 23.2% for the quarter, while at the Millionaire’s Club, the percentage dropped from 16.4% to 10.4%. The Tiger Palace just opened in December and, as such, has no comparative data.
Despite the decline in revenue, SHG executives have shown optimism for the rest of this year. In its revenue report for the first quarter, the company said that the Tiger Palace will shore up the business, stating, “Resort revenues and casino revenues [at Tiger Palace] have both been growing steadily over the first quarter 2018 and that growth continues in April.” Despite the departure of the two executives, hopefully it can stay on track.
