The scandal "has effectively held up the development pipeline by at least six to 12 months and this may have an impact in both tightening the supply situation and lengthening the timeframe to secure investments," the London-listed company said yesterday in a stock exchange announcement.
Several big developers have faced approval delays for Macau projects, but Speymill Macau is believed to be the first firm to walk away from a major investment due to the issue.
Approval delays lead the firm in January to shelve a HK$1.45 billion investment in the Bel-Lago, a residential project with four 50-storey towers being built by global property giant LaSalle Investment Management in the Nam Van Lake district near the Macau Tower.
Speymill Macau has made property investments in the enclave totalling US$197 million by market value since listing on London's alternative investment market in 2006.
The fund's Bel-Lago deal, abandoned just four months after it was announced, would have been the firm's largest investment to date.
"Approvals are still pretty much frozen at the moment," said an analyst at a European bank. "In the long term that may not be such a bad thing as it will give Macau time to absorb new supply, because it has been purely a punters' market for some of the new higher-end properties that have sold recently."
In addition to Bel-Lago, other high-profile projects contending with approval delays include Shun Tak Holdings' 3.8 million square foot mixed-use Harbour Mile in Nam Van.
Announced in 2004 and targeted for a 2006 completion, development plans for the residential, office, retail and casino project continue to await approval and the project is now scheduled to launch in 2010.
Kerry Properties in July last year secured rights to another lot in the Nam Van district, a 40,000 sqft site where it originally planned to finish a HK$2 billion luxury residential project by the fourth quarter of next year.
The company announced yesterday that completion would be pushed back to the second quarter of 2011, and it expected to begin planning and design in the second half of this year pending approvals.
Henderson Land Development announced in 2005 it had bought a 1.45 million sqft site on reclaimed land at Taipa Island and planned to invest HK$4 billion to build a residential project on it.
No new developments have followed since a statement in the firm's 2006 annual report, which said that "application for land-use conversion is under way and the total gross floor area has yet to be finalised".
