Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | October 2013 22 FEATURES T ravellers International Hotel Group has revived plans to raise up to US$500 million with a public offering of shares in its Resort World Manila casino and hotel complex. Travellers is a 50-50 joint venture between Genting Hong Kong, a subsidiary of the Malaysia-based Genting resort conglomerate, and Alliance Global, a Philippine corporation with extensive holdings in residential and commercial real estate and food and beverage. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal , Travellers wants to start taking orders from institutional and retail investors early in October and list on the Philippine Stock Exchange by the end of the month. Citing sources involved in the deal, the Journal says bankers have been speaking to potential investors to take up what are known as “cornerstone” stakes in the IPO. Cornerstone investors buy into an offering before it’s officially launched, usually pledging to hold their shares for a fixed period, reducing the risk of a sell-off after the listing. ResortsWorld Manila is the Philippines’largest andmost lucrative casino, and Travellers wants to expand both its gambling and extensive non-gambling offering by adding 1,100 more hotel rooms to the existing 1,500 or so, together with a convention center and other attractions. The expansion, to be completed out over the next three years, is budgeted at US$600 million. Prior to the opening of RWM, major casinos run independently of the government operator-cum-regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, had never succeeded in the Southeast Back on the Market ‘Cornerstone’ investors sought in a bid to resume Resorts World Manila IPO plan Asian archipelago, with many citing corruption and meddling by PAGCOR and government as reasons for their failure. In light of that history, the US$800 million investment to provide world-class gaming facilities at RWM was a risky one, but it appears Travellers arrived with the right product at, crucially, the right time. RWM opened strong in 2009 despite the global financial crisis Resorts World Manila The Philippines’ benchmark PSE Composite Index, which had surged 27% through May, had lost most of those gains over the summer.