GGRAsia – PH Resorts to borrow US$420mln for Cebu scheme: report

PH Resorts to borrow US$420mln for Cebu scheme: report

May 24, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

PH Resorts Group Holdings Inc president Raymundo Martin Escalona says his company will both borrow and issue equity inside the next three months to raise money to build a casino resort on the island of Mactan, near the central Philippine city of Cebu.

The casino resort will be the first built by the company, with an estimated cost of US$600 million.

Mr Escalona told reporters on the sidelines of the PH Resorts annual general meeting on Thursday the company might borrow up to 70 percent of the money – the equivalent to US$420 million – it needs and issue equity to raise the rest.

He said PH Resorts had asked a Philippine bank, China Banking Corp, to arrange a loan.

The company had hoped to raise US$342 million for the project through a follow-on offering of up to 2.05 billion common shares at PHP9 (US$0.17) a share.

“We will still do a follow-on. I don’t know when, but we will,” Mr Escalona said. “We have the option until end of 2020, depending on the market situation.”

PH Resorts has plans for two casino resorts.

The one on Mactan will be called ‘The Emerald’. It will be near the international airport that serves Cebu.

The first phase of the resort is due to have 400 hotel rooms, and a casino containing 100 gaming tables and 600 electronic gaming machines.

The other casino resort will be in Clark Global City, to the north of Manila on the main Philippine island of Luzon.

PH Resorts plans to finish its Mactan casino resort in 2020 and its Clark casino resort by 2024.

Mr Escalona was sanguine about gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the Philippines.

“We’re very optimistic. If you look at the growth rate of the GGR in the Philippines in the last seven years, it was above 20 percent. That will continue to grow to help tourism,” The Philippine Star newspaper reported Mr Escalona as saying.

PH Resorts is a listed vehicle used by Philippine entrepreneur Dennis Uy’s privately-held Udenna Corp for the purposes of raising money for investing in new-build Philippine casino projects.