Razon sells P3.8B worth of Bloomberry shares

Business tycoon Enrique Razon Jr. has sold some P3.8 billion worth of Bloomberry Resorts Corp. shares to institutional investors, increasing the public ownership and boosting the stock trading liquidity of this integrated gaming resort developer and operator.

Based on a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Razon’s Prime Metroline Holdings Inc. sold 350 million shares at P10.85 per share, or 3.18 percent of his stake in Bloomberry, to institutional investors through an overnight placement deal at an 8-percent discount to the company’s volume-weighted average price on Sept. 11.

“I am very confident of the prospects for Bloomberry. I believe the increased liquidity in the stock will be beneficial for investors and the company,” Razon said in a statement.

Prime Metroline remains the largest shareholder of Bloomberry with 65.58 percent of the company’s shares outstanding after this transaction.

Goldman Sachs (Singapore) Pte. acted as the sole placement agent for this transaction.

Since the shares were placed at an 8-percent discount, this transaction may stall Bloomberry’s rally, said Abacus Securities head of research Raymond Neil Franco.

Shares of Bloomberry have been rising on strong earnings performance this year.

At Monday’s closing price, Bloomberry was valued by the stock market at P130.92 billion.

Bloomberry posted P4.11 billion in first semester net profit, about 24 times larger than year-ago level, as gaming revenue hit a record high in the second quarter.

For the second quarter, Bloomberry’s net profit rose by 47 percent year-on-year to P1.96 billion, on a 34-percent year-on-year rise in earnings from flagship Solaire Resort and Casino along Manila Bay coupled with lower losses from Korean unit Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino.