Ongpin’s exit raises hopes
PhilWeb, the operator of 286 internet cafes in the Philippines, has applied for a renewal of its gaming license, according to media reports. In August the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. declined to renew the license as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s broad crackdown on domestically run e-Gaming in the country.
According to a filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Philweb’s new chairman Gregorio “Greggy” Ma. Araneta III and PhilWeb President Dennis Valdes formally submitted a license renewal application in person to PAGCOR officials.
After PAGCOR declined to renew the license, PhilWeb Chairman Roberto Ongpin stepped down in hopes that his resignation would save the company, which employs more than 5,000 people. Ongpin, a former finance minister under Ferdinand Marcos, had been singled out by Duterte as an “oligarch who must be destroyed.”
According to GGRAsia, PhilWeb has appealed to the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission to approve the PHP2 billion (US$41.2 million) block sale of founder Ongpin’s 53.76 percent stake to Araneta ahead of the mandatory tender offering to minority shareholders.
In September Araneta succeeded Ongpin as chairman.
“Gregorio Araneta Inc. is perfectly willing to do the tender offer, but it is in everyone’s interest to have the special block sale proceed now instead of after, because requiring the tender offer to be done first will only delay Roberto Ongpin’s exit from the company by at least another month,” Valdes wrote in the filing. “The concern is that any further delay in Mr. Ongpin’s exit from the company may delay its discussions with PAGCOR regarding the reissuance of the company license.”
