Melco tender offer set

THE MELCO casino group of Macau is set to make a tender offer to minority shareholders of Manchester International Holdings Unlimited Corp. (MIH), its backdoor-listing vehicle for local gaming, early next year.

Melco, through its local holding firms, will make a tender offer at about P3.15 per share for MIH’s class A (open only to local investors) and at about P3.55 for its class B (open to both local and foreign investors) shares.

Based on a disclosure filed by MIH, the shares that are subject of this tender offer consist of about 17.426 million class A shares and 11.157 million class B shares.  These account for about 6.94 percent of MIH’s total outstanding stocks.

The tender offer period will run from Jan. 11 to Feb. 11 next year.  Minority stockholders who will tender their shares will be paid in cash and in full on settlement date targeted by Feb. 18. The tender offer agent is ATR Kim Eng Securities.

MIH’s A and B shares, however, are now trading at a price higher than the tender offer price, which means that the tender offer price may not be too attractive. Yesterday, MIH’s class A shares closed at P10.98 per share (-14.22 percent) while class B shares closed at P11.08 per share (-14.77 percent).

The tender offer will be made by Melco via local units MCE (Philippines) Investments Ltd. and MCE (Philippines) Investments No. 2 Corp. MCE is a holding company owned by MCE Holdings Ltd. while MCE Investments No. 2 is a holding company that is majority owned by Maria Marcelina Ortigas Cruzana. Doris C. Dumlao