Bloomberry Resorts Corporation will acquire the 16 hectares of land upon which its Solaire Resort & Casino sits after being informed by gaming regulator PAGCOR last week that its bid has been successful.
In a filing to the Philippines Stock Exchange, Bloomberry revealed that the land would be purchased by subsidiary Sureste Properties Inc (SPI) for a total of Php37.3 billion. The purchase price is Php100 million above the floor price set by PAGCOR for the plots.
“SPI was the sole offeror for the property in a negotiated sale after two failed biddings,” Bloomberry said. “SPI will complete the transaction, sign the Deed of Absolute Sale and pay the balance of the purchase price within 45 days.”
PAGCOR originally announced its intention to sell the land, covering 16 hectares in Manila’s Entertainment City precinct, via auction in November. After the bidding failed due to no bids being submitted, the regulator announced in early January that it was launching a new auction for the land with bids due by Friday 26 January 2018.
Bloomberry subsequently submitted a bid through SPI – which runs the hotel and non-gaming facilities at Solaire and is the lessee of the land – to acquire the two parcels of land where the resort and its expansion area is located. SPI also submitted an offer to purchase the land by negotiated sale should the bidding process fail.
In a recent note, Morgan Stanley said that purchase of the land would save Bloomberry Php500 million (US$9.6 million) on current land rental but could lead net debt to rise to Php31 billion in 2018, declining to Php17 billion in 2019. The financial services firm added that interest expense could also rise to Php3.6 billion in 2018 and Php3.9 billion in 2019, lowering its net profit forecasts 23% and 30% respectively to Php7.7 billion and 7.9 billion.
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