PLC’s exit expected to close exodus era in Philippine bourse

The Sy family’s gaming investment firm is all set to exit the local bourse next week in a move that the group hopes would lift the share price of portfolio company Belle Corp.

The delisting of Premium Leisure Corp. (PLC) on July 9 is also seen as the last of consecutive exits from the Philippine Stock Exchange.

In an advisory on Tuesday night, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said it had approved the petition for voluntary delisting of PLC, which is controlled by Belle.

READ: Belle offers P0.85 for each minority share in PLC

To recall, Belle completed the tender offer of PLC’s shares at P0.85 each in May to buy out the latter’s minority shareholders as part of the process to privatize the SM Group’s gaming assets.

As a result, Belle now holds 99.95 percent of the total outstanding capital stock of PLC, whose public ownership fell below the 10-percent minimum level.

PLC’s delisting was also meant to help lift Belle’s share price, which closed at P2.49, up by 2.05 percent, on Wednesday.

Alfred Benjamin Garcia, research head at stock brokerage house AP Securities Inc., said investors had already priced in Belle’s full takeover of PLC.

“Now what we need is a big recovery in PLC’s earnings so that it can translate to [Belle’s] prices,” Garcia said in a Viber message.

“We’ll also need Belle to declare the same hefty dividends as PLC used to, so that it will be seen as a proper replacement for PLC,” he added.

PLC, whose wholly owned subsidiary Premium Leisure and Amusement Inc. is part of a consortium that holds the gaming license for City of Dreams Manila, will be the second company to delist from the bourse this year after Cebu Holdings Inc. exited on March 1.

Cebu Holdings had been suspended since 2021, following its merger with Zobel family-led Ayala Land Inc.

More IPOs

The PSE’s approval of PLC’s delisting also comes amid the bourse’s plans to attract more initial public offerings (IPOs) this year.

So far, the country has seen two companies brave the highly volatile stock market. OceanaGold Philippines Inc. raised P6.08 billion on May 13, while tycoon Edgar Saavedra’s Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. raised P5.3 billion on June 7.

Businessman Dexter Tiu-led NexGen Energy Corp. is set to launch its P579.6-million IPO on July 16.

READ: OceanaGold debuts on PSE in the red

The PSE aims to see up to P40 billion worth of equity deals from at least six IPOs this year.

In 2023, delistings overtook IPOs as four companies exited the local bourse, contributing to a P300-billion market value exodus. Three firms with a combined market value of P13.1 billion went public last year.

Asked whether 2024 may be another year of delistings, Garcia noted that PLC’s may be “the last of the delistings, at least for a while.”

“All of the companies that have shown interest in delisting have already done so,” he added.

The local bourse has seen tepid trading in recent years as the country recovered from and adjusted to various economic and geopolitical issues. The Philippine Stock Exchange Index, marred by low turnover ratios, is so far down 1.6 percent from 6,554.04 at the start of the year.