Casino Tycoon Lawrence Ho’s SPAC Swings Wildly After Merger With ‘Media And Entertainment Group’

Lawrence Ho, chairman and CEO of casino giant Melco International Development.

Akio Kon/Bloomberg

A special purpose acquisition company backed by casino magnate Lawrence Ho completed its merger with an obscure media and entertainment company, whose stock was on a roller-coaster ride during its New York Stock Exchange debut on Thursday.

Shares of France-based the Generation Essentials Group (TGE) skyrocketed as much as 234% on their first day of trading after the de-SPAC. The company closed flat at $10.04 on Thursday, reaching a market cap of $533 million.

TGE merged with Black Spade Acquisition II, a blank-check company formed by Ho’s Hong Kong-based family office Black Spade Capital, at an equity value of $488 million and enterprise value of $892 million. It came nearly a year after Ho listed Black Spade Acquisition II, raising $150 million with the aim to combine with a company in the entertainment, lifestyle or technology sectors that benefits from AI.

TGE is a subsidiary of AMTD Digital, which briefly became the world’s hottest stock after it went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2022. At the time, AMTD Digital founder Calvin Choi, a well-connected Hong Kong financier, amassed a paper fortune of as much as $37 billion in less than a month after AMTD Digital’s listing. Shares of AMTD Digital have since plunged more than 99% from its peak in August 2022.

Lawrence Ho (middle) and Calvin Choi (middle right), founder of AMTD Digital and the Generation Essentials Group.

The Generation Essentials Group

Formerly known as World Media and Entertainment Universal, TGE says it operates as a “global media and entertainment ecosystem covering high fashion, arts, lifestyle, cultural, entertainment as well as F&B.” The company runs media outlets including the L’Officiel fashion magazine (acquired in 2022) and the Art Newspaper (acquired in 2023), produces Chinese-language movies with a combined gross box office it says reached more than $400 million, and operates two hotels—one in Hong Kong and the other in Singapore.

TGE’s biggest revenue contributor in 2024 was its “strategic investments,” which included the stocks of Bank of Qingdao, Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank and its parent AMTD Digital, as well as film investments. The company reported an 81% jump in revenue to $77 million last year, with 45% coming from those investments, followed by hospitality and media advertising. Its net profit more than doubled to $44.7 million during the period, mainly due to the disposal of some non-core businesses.

A Black Spade Capital spokesperson said there’re “strong synergies” between TGE and Ho’s entertainment and hospitality empire. “We are actively exploring new ideas and collaborations to enhance value on both sides,” the spokesperson said in an email response. “With TGE’s hardworking team and innovative spirit, and now a solid capital raising platform, we are confident they will reach the next level and become a leading global force in media, fashion, and art.”

Ho, chairman and CEO of casino giant Melco International Development, is a son of late casino legend Stanley Ho. In 2021, he listed his first SPAC in the U.S., raising $169 million. Two years later, that blank-check company completed a $23 billion business combination with VinFast Auto, Vietnam’s electric-vehicle maker controlled by the country’s richest person Pham Nhat Vuong. VinFast saw its stock inexplicably skyrocketed to a peak market cap of $190 billion in August 2023. Its shares have since then plummeted more than 95% from its peak.

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