Lotto terminal operator buying back shares

Lotto operator Prime Gaming Philippines Inc. (PGPI) has bought back P9.54-million worth of its listed shares at the Philippine Stock Exchange.

In a disclosure submitted to the exchange, PGPI said it purchased an additional 476,912 common shares at P20 apiece. The company intended to buy back 5.5 million shares from the open market, using its unrestricted retained earnings.

Last Dec. 1, PGPI bought 638,400 common shares at P20 per share or a total value of P12.77 million.

Because of its comfortable retained earnings, PGPI has been buying back its shares to improve the market price and value of its traded stocks. Retained earnings are part of stockholders’ equity and are added to capital stock when figuring a business’ net worth.

PGPI earlier purchased P35.1-million worth of lottery terminals that will be leased to the government’s lotto operations.

The purchase is part of a program to install 2,000 lottery terminals for the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Philippine Gaming Management Corp. (PGMC), a unit of PGPI, has an existing agreement to lease lottery equipment to PCSO for its various lotto operations. PGMC gets a share of total sales as lease payment.

Since the acquisition of PGMC in 1998, PGPI has not made any more acquisitions and has remained as an investment holding company.

PGPI was originally incorporated as Central Azucarera de Pilar (CAP), mainly for the purpose of sugar production.

Following the entry of the Berjaya Lottery Management of Malaysia, PGPI changed its primary purpose to that of an investment holding company.

The Berjaya Group’s business interests include gaming and lottery management, financial services, consumer marketing and direct selling, as well as property development.