Bloomberry seeks court’s help to stop sale of stocks

Bloomberry Resorts Corp. has filed an urgent court petition to stop the P7.42-billion sale by Global Gaming Philippines LLC (GGAM) of an 8.7-percent stake in the Razon-led gaming firm.

GGAM, the Las Vegas-based management firm that was earlier booted out of Bloomberry’s Solaire Resort & Casino, moved to unload last week 921.18 million shares in Bloomberry at a discounted price of P8.05 a share, prompting the gaming firm to seek a six-day trading suspension that started Thursday. Bloomberry cited the need to “clarify” the implication of the intended sale, given that the shares were the subject of its counterclaim against GGAM.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) initially agreed to a six-day trade suspension of Bloomberry shares, but allowed trading to resume on Friday.

In a disclosure to the PSE Friday, Bloomberry said it had filed a petition for “ex-parte temporary protection” order with the Regional Trial Court of Makati against GGAM, Deutsche Regis Partners Inc., PSE and John Does.

Bloomberry seeks to stop the consummation of GGAM’s sale of shares to 50 institutional investors—a deal that was supposed to be completed through a cross transaction at the PSE.

The local gaming firm—the first to open an integrated gaming hub at Pagcor City—reiterated that the shares GGAM was trying to dispose of were the subject of ongoing arbitration proceedings.

“If the sale of the shares is completed, the petitioners will not be able to get back the shares and they will not be able to satisfy any judgment for damages that they may be able to obtain against GGAM in their ongoing arbitration proceedings on the termination of their MSA (management services agreement),” Bloomberry said.

GGAM is a unit of a Las Vegas-based casino investor, developer and manager of casino properties, which also operates in Macau and Singapore. Last Wednesday, it decided to unload its 8.7-percent stake in Bloomberry at a discount of around 10 percent from the closing price of P8.98 a share that day.

Bloomberry terminated the MSA with GGAM for Solaire four months ago, claiming breach of agreement. GGAM retaliated by bringing the case for arbitration, saying Bloomberry was the one in violation.

On Friday, when the PSE lifted the trading suspension on Bloomberry after a day, its shares fell by 2.23 percent. Shares of Bloomberry have fallen by around 26 percent since the legal squabble with GGAM erupted.