Melco Resorts Philippines Announces Intention To Delist From PSE

Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corp has just announced their plans to voluntarily delist from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). Their majority shareholders intend to purchase the 1.54 billion shares that are currently owned by the public.

Melco Resorts Philippines is a part of Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd which is a major casino developer in Asia. The company, which owns and operates City of Dreams Manila, did not explain the reasons for delisting their shares and they didn’t provide a firm date for the change.

In the same filing, Melco Resorts Philippines said that they want to purchase the 1.54 billion publicly-owned shares which represent about 27.23 percent of the capital stock that remains outstanding. It is expected that they will offer PHP7.25 per share with a total cost of about PHP11.19 billion.

Sanford Bernstein analysts Vitaly Umansky, Kelsey Zhu and Zhen Gong stated that the offer price is a 17% premium to Friday’s closing price and it is at a 14% premium over the weighted average price from the last three months.

Delisting Should Be Helpful

The three Sanford Berstein analysts claimed that the deal should be viewed as a favourable one because it will remove some of the company’s complexity. Shedding the publicly-traded affiliate will allow Melco Resorts to be in a stronger position to grow moving forward. The development of City of Dreams Manila was completed with the cooperation of Premium Leisure Corp. Premium Leisure Corp is a subsidiary of Belle Corp which is gaming and real estate operation that is run by the Sy family.

The Sy family is thought to be the richest family in the Philippines.

Official Filing Expected Next Week

More information regarding the pending tender offer will come when the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission happens sometime around September 17th. The Philippines usually requires that 95 percent of shares must be held before a delisting can move forward. However, if a company is able to prove that they have made their best effort to pick up the outstanding shares then it is still possible to permit the delisting.

In May, Melco Resorts said that they were involved in discussions with Belle Corp who were asked to pick up an equity stake in City of Dreams Manila which includes the hotel and other non-gaming facilities.