Makati court temporarily stops GGAM from selling Bloomberry shares

Published January 20, 2014 3:22pm

(Updated 4:01 p.m.) A Philippine court temporarily halted the sale of a minority stake worth $165 million in casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp by its Las Vegas-based partner, the Manila bourse said on Monday.

A Makati City regional trial court issued a 20-day restraining order to Global Gaming Philippines LLC (GGAM), which owns 8.7 percent of Bloomberry, the bourse said in a notice on its website, citing a copy of the order it received shortly after trading began.

In a filing to the bourse on Monday, Bloomberry said it had to seek a court order preventing the share sale because of ongoing arbitration proceedings with GGAM.

On Friday, Bloomberry filed a petition to stop the sale of 921.2 million shares in the company owned by GGAM.

“These share are subject of a counterclaim by Bloomberry Resorts and Holdings Inc. and Surestre Properties in the arbitration case, and if the sale of the shares is completed, the petitioners will not be able to get back the shares and they will not be able to satisfy any judgment for damages that they may be able to obtain against GGAM in their ongoing arbitration proceedings on the termination of their MSA (management service agreement) because of GGAM’s uncured material breach of MSA,” Bloomberry said.

The dispute stems from a decision by Bloomberry last year to terminate a management deal with GGAM for its $1.2 billion Solaire casino resort in Manila. GGAM sought arbitration over the issue, and Bloomberry together with two other partners filed a counterclaim.

In an statement issued on Monday, GGAM said it had invoked its rights as a stockholder to sell its shares.

It gave no further details but Bloomberry said GGAM wants to sell about 921.2 million of its shares to about 50 institutional investors.

In granting the Bloomberry petition, the court said, “Accordingly, respondent Global Gaming Philippines LLC, or any of its directors, officers, and its placement agents, respondents Deutsche Regis Partners Inc., as stockholder and nominee account holder, representative, agent, or any other person or entity within its control, and respondent Philippine Stock Exchange, as operator of the stock market, are temporarily restrained from disposing of, or facilities of the Philippine Stock Exchange of any of the 921,184,056 shares in Bloomberry Resorts Corp., beneficially owned by respondent Global Gaming Philippines LLC.”

Both Bloomberry and GGAM also did not specify a share price, but the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported GGAM wanted to sell the shares at a discounted price of P8.05 a share.

Bloomberry ended the morning session up 0.7 percent at P8.84 in a market that rose 0.2 percent.

Trading in Bloomberry was halted on Thursday for one day. The company had initially sought a six-day trading halt after disclosing on Thursday the share sale by GGAM.

Bloomberry's Solaire, owned by the Philippines' fourth-richest person, Enrique Razon, is the first of four government-approved casino projects at Entertainment City in Manila Bay. – With Reuters/GMA News

Tags: bloomberryresorts, solaireresort, ggam, sharesale