Resorts World Manila op starts tender offer for delist bid

Aug 20, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck  

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The operator of the Resorts World Manila casino resort (pictured) in the Philippines started on Monday its offer to public shareholders to take the business private, according to an update that day to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

The PHP8.7-billion (US$166-million) tender offer is due to end on September 23.

Travellers International Hotel Group Inc – a venture between Hong Kong-listed cruise ship operator Genting Hong Kong Ltd and Philippine conglomerate Alliance Global Group Inc – had first announced to the bourse on Thursday it would offer public stockholders PHP5.50 a share to take the company private.

In its Monday update, Travellers International affirmed that if successfully delisted, it “will no longer be subject to the reporting obligations of a listed company under the applicable rules of the PSE”.

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”. That filing did not go into specifics on that point.

In its Thursday announcement, Travellers International had said the success of the delisting attempt would depend on agreement from holders of an aggregate 838.21 million shares, and a scenario where – at the conclusion of the exercise – at least 95 percent of the firm’s stock was in hands other than those of public investors.

Monday’s update said that – if public owners accepted the exercise – the tender offer shares would be crossed “on or around” September 30.

The company said originally it intended voluntarily to delist its common shares from the main board of the PSE on October 15, according to an earlier filing. The deadline to go private was later postponed to October 21, it said in a follow-up filing.

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