LRWC defers preferred shares offer

MANILA, Philippines - Listed gaming concern Leisure & Resorts World Corp. (LRWC) has deferred a planned sale of preferred shares.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, LRWC sad its board decided to postpone its planned share sale “due to a change in the timing in the implementation of its work program and to further review its current expansion program to align with its over-all business strategy in the medium-term.”

“As a result, the company will revisit its financing program,” LRWC said.

The offer period was supposed to run from March 13 to 21 while the listing date was set on March 31.

The deferment came after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved last week the public offering of P250 million worth of perpetual preferred shares with 12.5 million detachable warrants.

The preferred shares are cumulative, non-voting and non-participating and were supposed to carry a coupon rate of 8.5 percent per annum and are paid semi-annually.

Under the terms of the offering, investors are entitled to one warrant for every 20 preferred shares they own.  The warrants are convertible to common shares starting on the fifth year or from March 31, 2019 to March 31, 2022.

Each warrant, if exercised at a price of P15 or the average weighted trading price for the three months prior (whichever is lower), will be converted to one common share.

LRWC aimed to raise about P437.5 million from the offering upon full payment of the shares and the exercise of the all warrants.

In its registration statement filed with the SEC, LRWC said it intended to use the proceeds for the purchase of the 79-room Binondo Hotel Suites Manila (P25 million),  construction and renovation of gaming sites (P175 million), automation of an enhanced management and monitoring system (P30 million) and installation of new servers for Rapid Bingo (P20 million).

The eight-story Binondo Suites Manila is a three-star hotel located at the heart of Chinatown district at the corner of Ongpin and Sabino Padilla Sts in Binondo, Manila. The ground up to third floor of the hotel includes a slot machine arcade with a total floor area of 1,500 square meters while the remaining floors comprise the hotel.

LRWC aims to put up new bingo facilities in 42 sites, Of the 42, nine have already been approved by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. while 29 are still pending approval by the state gaming firm.