Universal Entertainment Corp has taken a major step towards completing its planned backdoor listing of Tiger Resort Asia Limited (TRA), the operating entity of its Philippines integrated resort Okada Manila, after completing the acquisition of shares in Asiabest Group International Inc (ABG).
In an announcement on the company’s corporate website on Monday, Universal said that ABG had now been converted into a subsidiary of TRA, with the purpose of the acquisition being “to list the shares of the company which operates the company’s casino resort business on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) in the course of 2019.”
TRA now holds 66.6% of ABG.
The acquisition had originally been planned for completion in November but was delayed due to a request for information from a minority shareholder.
Former Universal Chairman Kazuo Okada, who was ousted from the company last year on allegations of fraud, also filed a request with the PSE in January to deny the block sale of shares in ABG. Okada claimed at the time that the sale was “inconsistent with the PSE’s objective to protect the investing public.”
