[ manilastandardtoday.com ] May 3,
2012.
Bloomberry Resorts Corp. is raising
P8.85 billion from the sale of shares to finance the construction of its
integrated casino and entertainment complex in Entertainment City called
Solaire Manila.
Bloomberry said in a disclosure to the
stock exchange it executed the placing of 1.179 billion shares at a steep
discount of P7.50 per share.
The company also set aside another
117.996 million shares to cover overallotment option. It said that if fully exercised,
the option will generate additional P885 million in capital.
Bloomberry tapped CLSA Limited and ABG
AG as the lead joint managers for the transaction.
The company’s announcement it sold
shares at a discounted price of P7.50 apiece pulled down its stock price by 25
percent to P9.01 per share on Wednesday from the last Monday’s close of P12.
Bloomberry said earlier the conduct of
an equity fund raising by way of placing and subscription would allow the
company to raise equity funds in a most expeditious and efficient manner for
its Solaire Manila project.
“The transaction is also intended to
strengthen and broaden the capital base of Bloomberry as well as to promote a
wider dispersion of the common shares of Bloomberry to a broad spectrum of
public institutional investors and to comply with the minimum public ownership
requirement of the PSE,” the company said.
After the share sale, Razon’s
ownership in Bloomberry will drop to 80.9 percent from 91.17 percent while
public ownership will increase to 11.45 percent from 0.22 percent.
Solaire Manila is an integrated
tourism resort owned and being constructed by Sureste Properties Inc. and
Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels Inc., which are the operating subsidiaries of
Bloomberry.
BRHI is one of the four companies
licensed by state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. with provisional
license to establish and operate integrated tourism resorts at Pagcor
Entertainment City.
Solaire Manila is located on an
8.3-hectare seafront property leased from Pagcor. Phase 1 when completed will
have a multi-level casino with 18,500 square meters of gaming area, including
6,000 square meters of exclusive VIP gaming area with approximately 300 gaming
tables and 1,200 slot machines.
It will have five-star hotel with 500
rooms, including suites, bayside villas, and will have seven specialty
restaurants.
“Bloomberry believes Solaire Manila
will be the first integrated resort to operate in Entertainment city upon it
scheduled opening in the first quarter of 2013. The company believes that
Solaire Manila will be the Philippines’ integrated tourism and gaming complex,
which will offer premium gaming experience to all is customers in a gaming
facility designed and operated according to world-class standards,” the company
said.
(Published in the Manila Standard
Today newspaper on /2012/May/03)jen
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