SEC suspends registration of Mondragon Leisure

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has suspended the registration certificate of Mondragon Leisure and Resorts Corp. (MLRC) for failure to settle fines arising from non-submission of financial reports.

MLRC, which is into leisure and gaming, operates the Mimosa Leisure Estate in Clark which features, among others, a 36-hole championship golf course, a 304-room five-star hotel, various deluxe furnished villas and a gaming casino.

An SEC official said the commission suspended MLRC’s permit to sell securities after the company failed to show up at the hearing called by the Corporation Finance Department last Sept. 1. The meeting was intended to give the leisure firm the opportunity to explain why its license to sell securities should not be revoked.

MLRC’s parent company, Mondragon International Philippines Inc. (MIPI), is also under fire from the SEC for failing to pay the penalty of P175,000 also as a result of non-compliance with the agency’s reportorial requirements.

MIPI has earlier postponed its annual stockholders meeting to March 14 next year from Sept. 13, 2004 to allow it to pursue negotiations with the government and prospective investors with respect to the operation of the Mimosa Leisure Estate in Pampanga.

The meeting was rescheduled to give the company enough time to pursue negotiations with investors who will provide additional funds both to settle its obligations to the government and normalize operations within the Mimosa Leisure Estate.

The state-run Clark Development Corp. (CDC) took over Mimosa in 1998 after MIPI failed to settle its back rentals with CDC as well as other obligations with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) worth around P325 million.

MIPI has been in active negotiations with CDC for the resolution of rental issues, a principal component of which is the entry of new investors to bring in fresh equity into MLRC to settle its government obligations and restructure its P7-billion debts owed to a consortium of bank creditors.