Belle offers P0.85 for each minority share in PLC

MANILA, Philippines — Belle Corp., a portfolio company of Sy family-led conglomerate SM Investments Corp., has set the tender offer price for all the outstanding common shares of Premium Leisure Corp. (PLC) at P0.85 each as the SM Group works to restructure its gaming assets.

In a stock exchange filing on Wednesday, Belle, which controls PLC, said the offer period would run from March 22 to April 24.

“First Metro, using various valuation methodologies, considered that PLC is fairly valued at between P0.60 to P0.85 per share,” Belle said in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

READ: SM Group to take gaming arm Premium Leisure Corp private

Premium Leisure and Amusement Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of PLC, is part of the Belle and SM Investments consortium that holds the gaming license for City of Dreams Manila, an integrated casino and hotel along Manila Bay.

This comes after PLC announced plans to voluntarily delist from the PSE in hopes of improving the share price of Belle.

Trading suspension

Shares of both Belle and PLC were suspended on Wednesday prior to the announcement.

Belle’s share price stood at P1.96 each on Tuesday, while PLC’s was at P0.92 per share. Trading will resume today, March 21, at 9 a.m.

The tender offer is meant to buy out the minority stockholders of PLC who own about 20 percent of the company.

This will give small investors a chance to exit the company prior to its privatization.

PLC will be the second company to delist from the local stock market this year amid the PSE’s plans to attract more initial public offerings (IPOs).Following its merger with Ayala Land in 2021, Cebu Holdings Inc., which was suspended that same year, finally delisted last March 1.

So far, only tycoon Edgar Saavedra’s Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (P12.9 billion) and OceanaGold Philippines (P7.9 billion), the local counterpart of Canada-based parent firm OceanaGold Corp., have announced IPO plans this year.

In 2023, delistings overtook IPOs after the exit of Holcim Philippines, Metro Pacific Investments Corp., 2GO Group Inc. and Eagle Cement.