Resorts World eyes delisting from bourse

Resorts World Manila developer and operator Travellers International Hotel Group plans to return to private hands six years after its local stock market debut, wanting to avoid having to telegraph key business strategies to its rivals in the gaming space.

“The conversion from a public entity into a private company will allow the company to timely address evolving market demands and rapidly changing customer needs without compromising its business strategies to competition,” Travellers told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday.

The voluntary delisting from the main board of the PSE and the mandatory tender offer  for 1.58 billion common shares have been approved by Travellers’ board of directors.  The controlling shareholders need to acquire at least 825.61 million of publicly held shares.

About 10 percent of the company’s shares are currently held by the public, while the rest are held by the controlling shareholders. Travellers is a partnership between tycoon Andrew Tan’s group and the Genting group of Malaysia.

Travellers, which trades on the PSE under the ticker RWM, has yet to indicate the price for the tender offer. It intends to file a tender offer report with the PSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission on or before the start of the tender offer on Aug. 19.

The company went on a trading suspension on Wednesday until Thursday to allow investors to digest the delisting plan. To date, the company is valued by the stock market at about P85.5 billion.

The delisting plan was announced ahead of the new rules to be issued by the PSE on the issuance of fairness opinion.

A fairness opinion is a report by qualified analysts or advisers that evaluates the facts of a merger, acquisition, carve out, spinoff, buyback or other types of purchase and provides opinion as to whether the proposed stock price is fair to the selling company.

The controlling shareholders of Travellers are Alliance Global Group, Megaworld Corp., First Centro, Adams Properties Inc., Star Cruises Philippines Holdings B.V., Asian Travellers Ltd., Premium Travellers Ltd. and the members of the board of directors.