Businessman Gregorio Araneta III hopes to be licensed and able to fully takeover PhilWepCorp by year’s end, according to a report by the Manilla Times.
Aranetta said that talks with the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission and gaming regulators are already underway.
Araneta, who is the new chairman of PhilWeb, said told the website that securing a Pagcor permit was “already in progress” and is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
He said that once the license is in place, PhilWeb will immediately re-operate the 286 existing e-Games outlets of Pagcor, putting its 5,000 employees and operators back to work.
“Yes because these operators, they’re losing money. About 5,000 people are expecting this,” he said. “I told Pagcor, I’m not the one who’s hurting. The business is there, the longer you keep us closed, the harder it would be for the operators, there will be lesser revenues.”
Pagcor takes up 40.2 percent of gaming revenues from e-Games operations while 28 percent goes to operators and only 29 percent goes to PhilWeb.
According to the paper, Gregorio Araneta Inc.is still in the process of acquiring Roberto V. Ongpin’s 771.651 million PhilWeb shares, equivalent to a 53.76 percent stake, for P2.60 per share or a total transaction value of P2 billion.
GAI has requested the SEC to allow them to go ahead with the block sale between Ongpin and Araneta before the mandatory tender offer, citing that no shareholder would be willing to tender their shares at P2.60 when they can dispose the shares at the market anytime at the prevailing market price of P9 or better.
The SEC has raised a concern that there is no precedent with this kind of arrangement as corporate laws require a tender offer to come first before a transaction that would result in changes to equity structure or shareholder control.
Araneta said he feels that his company has cited appropriate precedents for the transaction and feels that the SEC will make aa decision quickly.
Through its e-Games outlets, PhilWeb employs 700 personnel and 5,000 others who are e-Games operators.
