The company statement paid tribute to its late founder: “His many years of entrepreneurial, business and managerial experiences had been instrumental to the group’s success.
Under Dr. Chen’s visionary leadership, the group has been achieving remarkable growth and development after years of careful navigation of the business and skillful and strategic management.”
NagaCorp owns and operates NagaWorld, a casino-resort complex in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, where it currently holds a casino license running to 2065, with a guaranteed monopoly to 2035.
After taking a hit during the pandemic, the company’s fortunes turned around and it posted a
net profit of nearly $107.3 million in 2022, compared with a net loss of $147 million a year earlier, as revenue doubled to $460.7 million in 2022.
A second-generation member of an immigrant family from China, Chen grew up in the Kinta Valley tin-mining area.
He trained as a medical doctor at the University of Malaysia, but felt drawn to business.
He got into property development and making aviation parts.
In the 1990s, he went to Cambodia to explore for oil in the Gulf of Siam, but when the government tendered a casino license, Chen, who had hardly set foot inside a casino, grabbed the opportunity.
He saw it as a way to combine a steady cash flow with property development.
Chen, who called himself an accidental gambling tycoon, founded NagaCorp in 1995, launching casino operations on a leased barge on the Bassac River near Phnom Penh's Royal Palace.
In 2000, NagaCorp bought land near the barge dock and began building NagaWorld, and the casino moved onshore in 2003.
In 2006, NagaCorp became the first casino company to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange. In 2017, Chen, a fan of Lady Gaga, opened Naga 2, an opulent twin-tower extension.
Chen sought to expand his casino empire with the Primorsky Entertainment Resort City project in Vladivostok, Russia.
But last year, he pulled the plug on the partly built project after Russia invaded Ukraine and suspended work indefinitely.
In June 2023,
we reported that Chen was ratcheting up succession plans for his casino company.
In a C-suite regrouping in 2022, Chen became senior CEO and appointed three of his sons, Yiy Fon, Cherchi and Yiy Hwuan as CEOs overseeing operations, finance and hotels, respectively.
To bolster the transition strategy, Chen transferred a controlling interest in NagaCorp, where he is also executive director, to a family trust.