Robert Kuok, the Malaysian Chinese tycoon who owns what can politely be called a diversified business empire spanning sugar, timber, palm oil, property, media and hotels throughout the region, and who some analysts believe to be Asia’s richest man, has ended his one-time association with a gaming company by withdrawing from Sands China’s long-stalled project on Lot 5+6.

Sands announced today in a regulatory filing that Shangri-la Hotels, which also manages the Traders brand, would no longer be involved in the development of the hotel tower on Lot 5 accounting for around 1,200 rooms. It gave no details of which other hotel group might be taking Shangri-La’s place.

To be honest, we are surprised it has taken so long for these companies to part ways. Not only is Shangri-La known to be a stickler for detail and protocol on its projects, meaning an inexplicable delay in handover dates on the hotel would be hard to explain to the boss, but it is probably the best-connected hotel group in China and must have been watching events unfold in the Jacobs case and US investigations of Sands with a mixture of contempt and anxiety.

Perhaps this will work out all for the best. We still cannot understand why Sands would want another hotel brand on its properties. Shangri-La is a great brand in China, to be sure – the company occupies probably the best few blocks of real estate in Beijing and has dozens more luxury hotels around the country – but Macau is a unique destination. It’s like Las Vegas in this respect: who would want to brag to friends that they stayed at the Hilton in Vegas when you can say you stayed somewhere like the Venetian? So if you have the Venetian already – and market research suggests it already has quite a following in China – why not just create sub-brands for your properties in Macau?

Anyway, who are we to question the strategic genius of the man who runs Sands China? What we would leave readers with, however, is this consideration: what does the termination of this agreement – even if it was mutually agreed – say about the political fortunes of Sands in China? Stay tuned. Copyright and use with permission of IntelMacau