GGRAsia – Investor nets US$62 mln selling Bloomberry shares

Investor nets US$62 mln selling Bloomberry shares

Aug 05, 2014 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

Bloomberry Resorts Corp, the operator of Solaire Resort and Casino in the Philippines, says an investor has sold 245 million common shares of the company for about PHP2.7 billion (US$61.9 million). The stake was sold at PHP11.0 per share, the company told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

“We understand that a foreign investor sold its shares in Bloomberry,” the company said in a clarification report to the exchange. The filing however mentioned a “private placement transaction at PHP11.0 for 2.695 billion shares” of Bloomberry.

“I understand that there were a total of 245 million Bloomberry shares placed at PHP11/share for a total size of PHP2.695 billion,” Bloomberry’s director of investor relations, Leo Venezuela, explained to GGRAsia.

The foreign investor is an entity called Top Global Systems Ltd, Mr Venezuela said in a written reply. “We don’t have more information on that entity as of the moment,” he added.

Top Global is a holding company registered in the British Virgin Islands, according to public records.

Top Global subscribed to 800 million shares of Bloomberry at a price of PHP1.0 per share in February 2012, when the casino operator increased its capital stock to PHP15 billion. With Tuesday’s placement, Top Global made a profit of about PHP2.45 billion. After the transaction, it is unclear what is the company’s stake in Bloomberry.

Part of the proceeds of the 2012’s subscription to new shares was used to finance the construction and development of the Solaire casino resort.

Bloomberry last week reported net income of PHP2.3 billion for the first half of 2014, a big turnaround from last year’s net loss of PHP1.0 billion. Solaire launched in the first quarter of 2013.