GGRAsia – Melco Philippines makes formal request for delisting

Melco Philippines makes formal request for delisting

Sep 17, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corp made on Friday a formal request to the Philippine Stock Exchange for delisting of its shares on that bourse. It gave the news in a filing.

The filing contained a report from a firm called FTI Consulting Philippines Inc, giving what was described as an impartial review of the fairness and value of a tender offer planned by Melco Resorts Philippines’ controlling shareholder regarding the currently-listed shares. The report said the shares had an assessed market value of between PHP6.11 (US$0.11) and PHP7.49.

Friday’s delisting request confirmed that a Melco Resorts unit called MCO Philippines Investments Ltd – already the controlling shareholder in Melco Resorts Philippines – intended to conduct a tender offer for just under 1.57 billion shares held by the public – representing approximately 27.23 percent of the outstanding capital stock of Melco Resorts Philippines – at a tender offer price of PHP7.25 per share. The aggregate cost would be nearly PHP11.19 billion if fully executed.

The latest filing said the tender offer would run from October 3 to October 30.

FTI Consulting stated in its report that, based on its assessment of the market value of Melco Resorts Philippines’ shares, the tender offer price of PHP7.25 by MCO Philippines was “fair from a financial point of view.”

Melco Resorts Philippines is a unit of Asian casino developer Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd, and is the operator of the City of Dreams Manila casino resort (pictured) in the Philippine capital.

The parent told GGRAsia in an email on September 10, shortly after the announcement of intention to delist, that having the local unit’s shares quoted on the Manila bourse was not contributing to the group’s ability to raise funds in that market.