Hong Kong-listed Century Entertainment International Holdings Ltd says it has finalised an agreement to establish a joint venture to further develop an “existing gaming system platform and content development” business, in a bid to explore new egaming businesss in Asia Pacific (APAC) countries.
The partner in the joint venture is World Platinum Technologies Inc (WPT), a company incorporated in the Philippines and licensed by the nation’s casino regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), as a “gaming system service and gaming content provider,” according to a Wednesday filing.
The joint venture – under a deal first announced last month – will be established as a limited liability company in Hong Kong, and Century Entertainment will hold a 51-percent equity interest.
The board of the joint venture will be comprised of five directors, with three appointed by Century Entertainment.
Century Entertainment said it sees “growth potential in gaming platforms and contents” across countries in Asia Pacific.
It added: “Leveraging on the long involvement of the group in gaming business in Southeast Asia and experience and technical knowhow of WPT, the joint venture company will allow the company to have an opportunity to diverse into gaming business in other Asia Pacific countries.”
Upon the signing of the agreement, Century Entertainment is to allot and issue to WPT – or its nominee – 12,824,756 new shares, representing 10 percent of Century Entertainment’s total issued share capital as at the date of the agreement.
The issue price was set at HKD0.62 (US$0.079) per share, which the announcement said represented a discount of about 13.9 percent to the closing price of HKD0.72 per share on June 25, the last trading day prior to the suspension of trading in the shares of Century Entertaint on the Hong Kong bourse.
The shares will be issued in consideration of WPT granting to Century Entertainment “the non-exclusive right to use, distribute and/or sublicense its [WPT’s] proprietary gaming system platform and related content,” according to the filing.
Subject to the joint venture achieving certain revenue targets within 15 months of the date of the agreement, Century Entertainment shall further allot and issue to WPT additional 12,824,756 new shares.
If up to 25,649,512 new shares were issued to WPT, the Philippines-based company would control an approximately 16.7-percent stake in Century Entertainment.
