Uy clarifies casinos for Manila listco not done deal

Sep 03, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck  

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Filipino tycoon Dennis Uy is confirming plans to inject a US$300-million casino project on the holiday island of Cebu into his Manila-listed vehicle Philippine H20 Ventures Corp and to sell shares in that company this year, according to a Monday filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The filing also confirmed earlier media reports that the firm wanted to build a second casino resort in Clark Freeport Zone, northwest of Manila.

But Monday’s filing clarified that the asset injection was “not yet complete” as the two casino projects were “not yet owned by the corporation”. Mr Uy’s side had mentioned in June such an injection exercise.

The latest regulatory announcement added regarding a share sale: “We also seek to clarify that although the corporation has filed a registration statement in connection with a potential follow-on offering which could raise up to PHP18.48 billion [US$345.5 million]… the corporation has not yet received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange to offer these shares to the public.”

The clarification further stated that Philippine H2O Ventures currently complied with the 10-percent minimum public ownership that is required for listed companies.

The Cebu project is called Lapu-Lapu Leisure Mactan.

The second casino resort scheme would reportedly be at Clark Global City in the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga. The projected completion date is 2022.

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