Tiger Resorts

MANILA, Philippines — Okada Manila operator Tiger Resort Asia Ltd. has exited listed investment holding firm Asiabest Group International Inc. after six years in a share sale deal with a real estate consortium.

In a stock exchange filing on Friday, Asiabest said the consortium led by property developer PremiumLands Corp. bought all 200 million shares held by Tiger Resort.

This represents a 66.67-percent stake in Asiabest, which has not been operating since 2017.

That year, Asiabest sold its interest in mining firm GNA Resources International Ltd., significantly reducing its operational activities. It has not been operating since.

The holding firm’s share price has ballooned by 770 percent since the beginning of the year and closed at P26.20 each on Thursday. This values the transaction at P5.24 billion.

In a notice on Friday, the Philippine Stock Exchange said trading of Asiabest’s shares was suspended following PremiumLand’s acquisition.

The bourse did not say when the suspension would be lifted, only that the transaction still required “regulatory evaluation.”

“The exchange will inform the trading participants and the investing public of further developments on the matter,” the PSE said.

PremiumLands is a real estate developer led by businessman Francis Lloyd Chua, who has projects in Makati City and Ormoc City, according to its website.

Based on its nine-month financial report, Asiabest currently has a deficit of P48.9 million for not having any operations for seven years.

The company likewise has negative operating cash flows of P8.6 million as of the end of September.

In 2018, Tiger Resort took control of Asiabest and bought 200 million shares for P646 million as part of the latter’s strategy to focus on entertainment and gaming.

Trading Edge Consultancy chief investment strategist Ron Acoba explained that Tiger Resort’s exit would allow it to “at least recoup its investment.”

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“As to [Asiabest]llgames168, it has been a shell company for the longest time,” Acoba told the Inquirer in a Viber message. “It will then be finally operational, reflecting the entering company (PremiumLands), assuming, of course, it holds a capital-raising program later on and does not back out like Tiger.”

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