Philippines gaming services provider PhilWeb Corporation has announced the acquisition of three Pagcor eGames sites.
In two separate filings to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, PhilWeb said it had acquired two sites in Cainta through its subsidiaries BigGame Inc and Easy E-Bingo Inc respectively. The sites were acquired from Ching Bu Gaming Corporation in exchange for 2.25 million PhilWeb Corporation common shares.
PhilWeb also acquired a site in Pasay City through BigGame Inc from Florante O Castillo for a consideration of 1.25 million shares.
It was only last week that PhilWeb revealed it had received approval from Pagcor to provide its gaming systems to 16 Pagcor-licensed sites, stating at the time that it was on the verge of returning to full operations “as an Electronic Gaming System Service Provider to the first 16 Pagcor-licensed gaming sites for electronic games, subject to inspection and testing by Pagcor.”
PhilWeb’s return comes as former majority shareholder Roberto Ongpin was cleared by the Philippines Court of Appeals (CA) of insider trading in relation to the purchase and sale of Philex Mining Corporation shares for a profit in 2009.
The CA finding reversed a ruling by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in July 2016 which found him guilty of insider trading – fining him Php174 million at the time and prohibiting him from joining the board of any listed company in the Philippines.
Ongpin gained a temporary restraining order shortly afterwards that allowed him to remain on the board of PhilWeb, but he later sold his 53.75% stake to current Chairman Gregorio Araneta III after Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte famously referred to him as an “oligarch” and revoked the company’s gaming license.
PhilWeb was informed in August of this year that its license would be renewed under the ownership of Araneta III. It also revealed a new corporate logo it said reflected the company’s “renewal” under the leadership of Araneta III.