GGRAsia – Travellers tender offer complete, on schedule to go private

Travellers tender offer complete, on schedule to go private

Sep 27, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

Philippine casino operator Travellers International Hotel Group Inc says a total of just over 1.32 billion common shares was tendered by the end of a tender-offer period on September 23.

“The tendered shares are expected to be crossed on 30 September 2019,” said Travellers International in a filing on Thursday to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). “In view thereof, the resulting public float will be less than 2 percent after the crossing of shares,” it added.

The company said a total of just over 261.80 million common shares, forming part of the existing public float, had not been tendered by the September 23 deadline.

The operator of the Resorts World Manila casino resort in the Philippines started on August 19 a PHP8.7-billion (US$166.9-million) offer to public shareholders to take the business private. The offer was for over 1.58 billion shares in the company which were held by stockholders other than the non-public shareholders.

At the time it announced its intention to delist from the PSE, Travellers International said that the offer depended on it being accepted by the holders of just over 838.21 million shares, and on the non-public shareholders ending up with at least 95 percent of the stock of the company in their hands.

Travellers International had previously told the exchange the conversion from a public entity into a private company would allow the firm to address in a “timely” way, “evolving market demands and rapidly-changing customer needs without compromising its business strategies to competition”.

The company – a venture between Hong Kong-listed cruise ship operator Genting Hong Kong Ltd and Philippine conglomerate Alliance Global Group Inc – intends voluntarily to delist its common shares from the main board of the PSE on October 21, according to an earlier filing.