By Jenniffer
B. Austria | Posted on May. 30, 2013 at 12:02am
[
manilastandardtoday.com ]
Robinsons
Land Corp., the property unit of business tycoon John Gokongwei, said Wednesday
it has ended talks with Kazuo Okada’s Universal Entertainment Corp. over a
$1-billion gaming and leisure project in the country.
“Upon mutual
agreement, Robinsons Land Corp. and Universal Entertainment Group have decided
not to pursue discussions between them concerning the proposed development
located in the Pagcor Entertainment City Project,” Robinsons Land said in a
disclosure to the stock exchange. It did not cite reasons for ending the talks.
Robinsons Land
in December said it signed a preliminary agreement with Universal Entertainment
for the project. The two parties in January agreed to extend the negotiations.
Robinsons
Land under the initial agreement would acquire a minority interest in Okada-led
Tiger Resorts Leisure and Entertainment, which will operate the casino and
hotel project called Manila Bay Resorts.
Robinsons
Land was to acquire a majority stake in Eagle I Land Holdings Inc., the
landowner of the project.
The
44-hectare Manila Bay Resorts is envisioned to be a world-class casino resort
complex that will boast luxurious hotels, classy restaurants, commercial
facilities, hotels, residences, Vegas-style water fountains and an enormous
indoor pool with real sand beach covered by a huge glass dome.
The casino
project, which was scheduled to open by 2014, would contain three hotels with a
total of 2,000 rooms. The gaming component of the project covers 30,000 square
meters of space, offering 3,000 slot machines and 500 gaming tables.
Jomar Lacson,
research head of Campos Lanuza & Co., said the recent change in tax
regulation involving licensees of Pagcor might have affected the talks between
Robinsons Land and the Okada group.
The Bureau of
Internal Revenue said in a directive April 17 that the income of Pagcor as well
as contractees and licensees were subject to the payment of a 30-percent income
tax on net taxable income, instead of the 5-percent franchise tax on gross gaming revenue.
Lacson said
Okada, who is facing criminal investigation in the US related to his Philippine
casino project, would have to look for another Filipino partner before he could
push through with the casino project.
The Japanese billionaire, who amassed a fortune
selling machines for Japanese pachinko parlors, won one of four provisional
gaming licenses awarded for the Manila casino hub in 2008
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