Ongpin cancels share sale, donates PhilWeb stake to PAGCOR

Businessman Roberto V. Ongpin canceled the auction of his majority shareholdings in listed gaming technology provider PhilWeb Corp.

Instead, he is donating sizable portion of the shares to industry regulator Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) in what could be the saving grace of the company.

"As of the deadline of 12 noon today, I have received five bids for my 53.76-percent stake (about 771 million shares) in PhilWeb," Ongpin said in a letter to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The 49 percent is equivalent to 378,157,449 shares.

"However, due to the reports in the media that under no circumstances will the PhilWeb license be renewed, I have decided that it is not appropriate, nor fair to the bidders for me to award my shares to any of the bidders," he said.

Last week, Ongpin announced he was selling all his PhilWeb shares in a last-ditch effort to save the company.

Instead, he donated 49 percent of his shares to PAGCOR.

"Why 49 percent? This is simply to avoid PhilWeb being classified as a government-owned and controlled corporation, which would make the various restrictions applicable to GOCC's result in making PhilWeb's operations untenable," he said.

But PAGCOR said Ongpin's offer have to be reviewed by the PAGCOR board and by President Rodrigo Duterte.

"I have to study the matter and then discuss with the board and get feedback from the Office of the President," PAGCOR Chair Andrea Domingo told GMA News Online.

"I just read Mr. Ongpin's offer through email," she said.

Before its license with PAGCOR lapsed on August 10, PhilWeb was the operator of 286 e-Games outlets or internet cafes with casino games.

On August 3, President Duterte tagged Ongpin as one of the oligarchs that have an undue influence on the government and must be destroyed.

"I am of course assuming that if PAGCOR would own 49 percent of PhilWeb, it would renew the license to itself and thus, save the jobs and livelihood of about 6,000 employees and their families," Ongpin noted.

According to the businessman, the transaction "comes with no strings attached," giving PAGCOR the liberty to decide whether to retain the PhilWeb shares as a permanent investment or sell all or part of the stake to the highest bidder.

"The net financial result of the above would be not only to save jobs and livelihood but also to enable PAGCOR to maintain, and in fact, improve its financial earnings from PhilWeb's operations, not to mention the windfall of my donation which under normal conditions, would have a market valuation of about P20 billion," he said.

Ongpin lost up to P7.664 billion of the value of his shareholdings from August 3 to August 11. — VDS, GMA News