Singapore arbitral ruling: Bloomberry ordered to pay $296M to firm ousted from Solaire

A Singapore-based arbitration court has ordered the Bloomberry group to pay $296 million to Las Vegas-based Global Gaming Philippines LLC (GGAM).

The amount was for arbitral award in the case filed by GGAM which claimed that it had been unjustly booted out of the management of Solaire Resorts & Casino in 2013.

Bloomberry, however, said it believed the final remedies award was “fundamentally flawed”. It said its counsel was now considering its options in Singapore and elsewhere.

Bloomberry’s subsidiaries have filed a petition at Singapore courts seeking to disregard the prior partial award on liability of the arbitration tribunal, claiming that such award was “procured by fraud and is in violation of public policy.”

In 2016, Singaporean Arbitration Tribunal hearing the dispute between Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels Inc. (BRHI)-Sureste Properties Inc. (SPI) and GGAM ruled in favor of GGAM and upheld its claim to an 8.7 percent stake in resort owner and developer Bloomberry Resorts Corp.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, Bloomberry said the ruling dated Sept. 27 awarded “less than half” of the compensation demanded by GGAM. Bloomberry was asked to pay the following:

• $85.2 million in damage for lost management fees to claimants;
• $391,224 in pre-termination fees and expense to claimants;
• P10.17 billion ($281.2 million) for the 921.18 million GGAM shares in Bloomberry in exchange for claimants turning over the shares after the payment; and,
•  $14.998 million reimbursement for cost of arbitration./TSB