By Jenniffer
B. Austria | Posted on Aug. 13, 2013 at 12:02am | manilastandardtoday.com
Magnum
Leisure Holdings Inc., a unit of businessman Wilson Tieng’s Solar Entertainment
Corp., is buying the Philippine hotel and casino operations of Panama-based
Thunderbird Resorts Inc. for $26.5 million.
Thunderbird
Resorts Inc. said in a statement posted on the Web site it sold the entire
economic interest and management rights in its Philippines and related British
Virgin Islands operations to Magnum Leisure and related affiliates of Solar
Entertainment.
Thunderbird
Resorts, an international provider of branded casino and hospitality services,
is focused on markets in Latin America. It owns two casinos in the
Philippines—one located in San Fernando, La Union and another in Binangonan,
Rizal.
Thunderbird
Resorts in 2011 announced that the group and Solar Entertainment would enter
into a joint venture to co-own the Philippine operations.
The group,
however, said it decided to sell rather than to jointly own the Philippine
operations in order to build shareholders’ value.
The sale of
Philippine operations would reduce Thunderbird Resorts’ consolidated debt by at
least $9.2 million.
“With the
sale of the Philippines, the group now has fresh capital to further reduce debt
and to invest in building cash flows in Peru, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. We will
continue to focus on gaming as our core business,” Thunderbird Resorts said.
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