Belle raises $140M from follow-on offer

Leisure estate and gaming firm Belle Corp. has raised a total of $140 million by paring down its stake in gaming investment holding firm Premium Leisure Corp. in a follow-on offering primarily meant to widen the latter’s public float and make it more attractive to investors.

Regional investment house CLSA Ltd. has acquired additional shares of PLC worth P805.67 million in order to meet excess investor demand and stabilize prices, based on separate regulatory filings by PLC and its parent firm Belle.

CLSA said it had bought 284.65 million shares of PLC from Belle at P1.65 each as part of the “green shoe” or overallotment option given by the selling shareholders. This gave CLSA the option to place out more shares in case of strong demand for the follow-on offering.

It was also disclosed that for the period Sept. 29 to Oct. 24, CLSA—as the mandated stabilizing agent—purchased a total of 204.9 million common shares of PLC for stabilization purposes at an average price of P1.64 a share.

Shares of PLC were up 3.55 percent to close at P1.75 each Monday as CLSA announced its exercise of the overallotment option and the stabilization transactions. This gave the newest gaming play in the local bourse a market capitalization of P53.45 billion.

Belle vice chair and PLC chair Willy Ocier said in a text message that Belle raised a total of $140 million from the equity deals, which widened PLC’s public ownership to 21 percent. Prior to Belle’s place-out of shares, PLC—formerly Sinophil Corp.—had an ownership of only 10.6 percent. Doris C. Dumlao