Philippines gaming firm Leisure and Resorts World Corp (LRWC) says it will raise a total of Php4.38 billion (US$588 million) from six new investors after shareholders approved the issuance of more than 1.3 billion common shares of unissued capital stock.
The shares are to be issued at a price of Php3.60 per share.
LRWC is best known as the local partner of Macau’s Galaxy Entertainment Group in their pursuit of a license to operate an integrated resort on the holiday island of Boracay. The consortium made global headlines early last year after being granted a provisional license to develop a US$500 million Boracay IR by Philippines gaming regulator PAGCOR only for the nation’s President, Rodrigo Duterte, to declare he would not approve any new casinos.
LRWC also owns a majority stake in gaming infrastructure provider First Cagayan Leisure and Resorts Corp, operates the Midas Hotel in Manila via another subsidiary and leases Casino Filipino inside Midas to PAGCOR.
One of the investors is listed as Diamond Fortune Holdings, the same name as the Russian casino operator currently developing phase one of a US$900 million integrated resort in the Primorye gambling zone near Vladivostok.
However, the CEO of Russia’s Diamond Fortune, Thomas Gibbons, informed Inside Asian Gaming that it was not his company involved in the LRWC share purchase.