Belle Corp wants gaming subsidiary to go private

Mar 11, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck  

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Philippine-listed Belle Corp says it intends to conduct a tender offer for all of the outstanding common shares of its gaming unit, Premium Leisure (PL) Corp. The aim is to apply for the “voluntary delisting” of Premium Leisure from the main board of the Philippine Stock Exchange, stated in a Monday filing the parent company.

The exercise, approved on Monday by Belle’s board of directors, is “subject to… a valuation study” on Premium Leisure’s shares, “and issuance of a fairness opinion, by an independent third party,” according to the filing.

Premium Leisure is an investor in City of Dreams Manila, a casino resort in the Philippine capital that is run by a unit of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd. Premium Leisure earns a share – via one of its units – of the gaming revenue generated at City of Dreams Manila.

Premium Leisure also runs a lottery operation via Pacific Online Systems Corp.

Investment bank First Metro Investment Corp has been engaged “to conduct the valuation study and issue a fairness opinion report,” said Belle.

The tender offer price, timing, and other terms and conditions of the exercise “shall be determined and finalised upon receipt and acceptance by the board of directors of Belle of the fairness opinion report,” it added.

Data from the Philippine bourse showed that Premium Leisure has a public float level of 20.1 percent, “slightly above the 20-percent requirement,” observed Maybank IBG Research in a Tuesday memo.

In a separate filing, Premium Leisure said it had volutarily requested for the trading in its shares to be suspended on Monday, “to allow the investing public equal access to and consideration of this information”.

In its own filing, Premium Leisure said that in a special meeting on Monday, its board of directors “approved the voluntary delisting” of Premium Leisure’s shares from the Philippine bourse.

The exercise is “subject to the successful tender offer by Belle and in accordance with the requirements of the Philippine Stock Exchange for voluntary delisting,” said Premium Leisure.

“Belle will serve as proponent for the voluntary delisting of Premium Leisure,” it added.

Belle Corp’s casino revenue generated from its share of gaming business at City of Dreams Manila rose by 49.9 percent year-on-year in 2023, to nearly PHP2.34 billion (US$41.7 million).

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