City of Dreams operator seeks delisting

City of Dreams Manila operator Melco Resorts and Entertainment (MRP) plans to delist from the Philippine Stock Exchange amid ongoing discussions to consolidate its gaming interest with Premium Leisure Corp. (PLC).

In line with the plan, controlling shareholder MCO (Philippines) Investments Ltd. has notified MRP it intended to conduct a tender offer for shares held by the public at P7.25 per share, or at a premium to the prevailing market price.

MRP’s shares closed on Friday, the last trading day before the tender offer was disclosed, at P6.21 per share. Yesterday, its share price surged by 11.11 percent to P6.90 per share following the tender offer announcement.

PLC shares were likewise up by 5.88 percent to close at P0.90 per share.

The tender offer will cover up to 1.54 billion outstanding common shares of MRP, representing 27.23 percent of the company’s outstanding capital.

This exercise is seen part of an overall plan to merge the gaming assets with that of PLC.

MRP and PLC each owns half of the gaming revenues of CoD Manila. Instead of competing for investors’ attention, there are ongoing discussions to combine all of CoD Manila’s gaming revenues into one bigger entity.

Based on previous discussions, PLC will remain an investment holding company for Melco shares, Pacific Online and other gaming investments.

MRP is part of Macau’s gaming giant Melco group while PLC is led by leisure estate and gaming firm Belle Corp., which is in turn controlled by the Sy family.

In a previous disclosure, MRP said it was in “preliminary” discussions with PLC “in relation to a potential transaction whereby PLC or its affiliated entities may become equity holders of the corporation (Melco).”

MRP is valued by the stock market at around P35.2 billion while PLC is valued at close to P27 billion. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA