Travellers International Hotel Group Inc., the joint venture of Genting Hong Kong and Alliance Global Group that operates Resorts World Manila in the Philippines’ Entertainment City casino zone, has announced it will delist from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) and take the venture private.
According to the Philippine Star, Travellers will conduct a tender offer for about 1.6 billion shares currently not held by its parents or subsidiaries. It will proceed with the plan to go private when at least 17,300,000 shares are acquired. At the conclusion, at least 90 percent of the total listed and outstanding shares in Travellers will be held by non-public shareholders.
Travellers explained that the delisting will “allow the company to timely address evolving market demands and rapidly changing customer needs without compromising its business strategies to competition.”
The move comes almost two months after Resorts World’s Entertainment City rival, Melco Resorts’ City of Dreams Manila, was also delisted from the PSE after falling below the minimum required threshold for public ownership. Melco previously acquired shares through a tender offer to increase the stake held by MCO (Philippines) Investments Ltd.
Travellers has set a tender offer price of PHP5.50 per share (US$.11). According to the Star, the privatization plan is in keeping with Travellers’ goal to “be more competitive and responsive in the grueling and highly competitive leisure resorts hotels and casino sector where the introduction of market innovations are hampered by the disclosure requirements for publicly listed firms.”
The PHP8.7 billion (US$166 million) tender offer began on August 19 and is due to end on September 23.
