Winnie Ho seeks appeal on Macau casino IPO ruling

HONG KONG, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Macau tycoon Stanley Ho's estranged sister, who tried unsuccessfully to block the listing last month of his SJM Holdings (0880.HK) casino flagship, on Tuesday sought an appeal against a court ruling that went against her.

Winnie Ho last month sought judicial review in Hong Kong's High Court of regulatory decisions allowing SJM to proceed with its initial public offering, which raised $494 million. But the court ruled against her and her application to appeal to Hong Kong's Court of Appeal was dismissed.

Donna Yau, Winnie Ho's spokeswoman, said on Tuesday that Winnie Ho had filed a notice of motion in the Court of Appeal informing it of her intention to take her case to the Court of Final Appeal.

Winnie Ho is contesting decisions by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to allow SJM's listing to proceed.

Winnie Ho has disputed the ownership of SJM's unlisted parent firm, which is also controlled by Stanley Ho.

Shares of SJM, which went public on July 16, are down 10.7 percent from their IPO offering price of HK$3.08, lagging a 2 percent increase in Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI.

Winnie Ho has filed more than 30 lawsuits against her brother in recent years, according to SJM's listing prospectus.

SJM first announced its IPO plans in early 2006. It had hoped to raise $1 billion in an offering in January, but shelved the plan amid a weak stock market and queries made by the Securities and Futures Commission regarding the shareholding structure of SJM's parent firm, Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM). (Reporting by Kennix Chim, editing by Tony Munroe)