Century Properties inks property deal with Japanese gambling magnate

MANILA—Century Properties Group Inc. confirmed Friday it has signed a property deal with the group of Japanese gaming magnate Kazuo Okada to participate in the latter’s entertainment and gaming hub “Manila Bay Resorts” at Pagcor Entertainment City.

Releasing to the media a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Century said it had signed a memorandum of agreement with Eagle I Landholdings Inc. (Eagle I), a Philippine affiliate of Tokyo-listed Universal Entertainment Corp., to develop five hectares of land within the 44-hectare Manila Bay Resorts.

In addition, it said, Century has entered into an investment agreement with Eagle I whereby Century will be issued with 432 million of preferred shares, representing 36 percent of Eagle I’s pro forma capital stock. Eagle 1 is the landowner of the project site.

Century, which is led by the family of businessman Jose Antonio, has committed to develop at its five-hectare site luxury residential and retail properties that will total over 300,000 square meters of gross floor area upon completion.

“Closing of both the memorandum of agreement for the five-hectare site and investment agreement for Eagle 1 shall occur upon satisfaction of legal and regulatory requirements, and neither transaction contemplate Century being involved in any aspect of the gaming operations,” the disclosure said.

“The strategic fit for the five-hectare site within the landmark Manila Bay Resorts is borne out of Century’s long standing track record of 28 years in the Philippine real estate industry,” it added.

The partnership with Okada gives CPG a foothold in Pagcor City as a landlord after limited licenses had earlier been awarded to four proponents. The other licensees in Entertainment City are tycoon Enrique Razon’s Bloomberry Resorts, the Melco Crown Entertainment-Belle Corp. group and Andrew Tan-Genting group partnership which has brought their venture Travellers International Hotel Group to public hands. Only Bloomberry’s Solaire Manila is operational so far.

Okada had long been in search of a local partner partly to address foreign equity limits on land ownership.

Over the last 28 years, Century has developed quality upscale properties, including Essensa East Forbes at Fort Bonifacio Global City (designed by Pei Cobb and Freed) and has brought key international brands such as Trump, Versace, Missoni Home, Yoo inspired by Starck, the Forbes Media Tower, along with its continued collaborations with the best local architects, interior designers and consultants.

Century Properties has 28 projects in various stages of construction in its mixed-used developments in Century City in Makati City, Azure in Parañaque City, Acqua in Mandaluyong City, Commonwealth by Century in Quezon City, Canyon Ranch in Carmona, Cavite.

The Antonios came into the picture after talks between Okada and the Gokongwei-led Robinsons Land Corp. on a gaming partnership were aborted. This was at the height of the investigation in the United States of alleged violations of anti-bribery laws in relation to the $2-billion casino project in the Philippines.

The deal is different from the aborted framework with Robinsons Land Corp., which would have allowed the Gokongwei-led firm to likewise acquire a minority interest in the gaming facility to be operated by Okada’s Tiger Resorts, Leisure and Entertainment. At the same time, RLC was supposed to acquire a majority stake in Eagle I.

The stock market was abuzz with talk about the prospective property deal between Century and Okada in the last two trading days. On Thursday, shares of the property firm rose by 5.2 percent to P1.82 per share, giving it a market capitalization of P16.75 billion.