The Cabo Verde government has given Macau Legend Development one last opportunity to present an alternative proposal for its long-delayed casino-resort project in the capital of Praia.
Under the new terms, the Macao-headquartered firm has 60 days to submit an alternative plan, after which the project will be annulled and turned over to other potential investors.
In an interview with Portuguese media outlet, Lusa, last week, Cabo Verde’s minister for internal affairs, Paulo Rocha, said that Macao Legend “has had several opportunities and has this one last chance.”
According to the official, Macao Legend claims to have a proposal, although the authorities are still “waiting” for it to be presented, “even while the process of reversing the project is underway.”
The casino-resort project – spanning roughly 160,000 square metres – currently remains unfinished, with Rocha noting that construction on the “half finished” project halted “a long time ago.”
“There’s practically no movement on that building site, and the government wants to see it resolved one way or another,” the minister told Lusa.
Despite the troubled nature of the casino-resort project, the internal affairs minister stressed in his latest interview that “the government is interested in finding a solution” as it remains strategically important for Praia and the country.
[See more: Macau Legend has restructured almost HK$2.1 billion in loans]
Macau Legend’s involvement in the Praia development can be traced back to 2015 to when the firm’s founder, David Chow Kam Fai, signed off on an agreement to invest US$294.3 million.
While initial progress was made in the complex’s construction, it ultimately failed to meet its first phase deadline of 2021. The impasse resulted in Cabo Verde’s prime minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, describing the situation as unsustainable in early 2023.
Towards the end of that same year, the chairman and CEO of Macau Legend, Li Chu Kwan, said that his company was looking to pull out of the casino ventures in Cabo Verde and Cambodia by 2025 in order to focus on non-gaming projects.
In late 2024, the Cabo Verde government terminated its contracts with Macau Legend, which it argued had “flagrantly and repeatedly” sidestepped its responsibilities.
Best known in Macao for owning Fisherman’s Wharf, Macau Legend has been beset with financial problems in recent years. The imminent closure of its Legend Palace satellite casino on 1 January 2026 due to changes in Macao’s gaming legislation is expected to further exacerbate its woes.
However, the developer was recently granted some reprieve when it struck a deal with lenders to delay its HK$2.1 billion (US$268 million) loan repayment until late 2026.
