Travellers to delist from Philippine Stock Exchange

Wednesday 14th of August 2019

Travellers International Hotel Group says it plans to delist its shares from the Philippine Stock Exchange to avoid disclosing its business strategy to competition.

The operator of Resorts World Manila will be the second gaming stock to delist in the Philippines after Melco Resorts & Entertainment’s local unit.

Travellers said it will make a tender offer for more than 1.58 billion shares. It said the offer is conditional of receiving tenders from more than 825 million shares held by investors not linked to the group.

After the offer, at least 95 percent of outstanding shares will be held by non-public shareholders, which include Alliance Global and Megaworld.

“The conversion from a public entity into a private company will allow the company to timely address evolving market demands and rapidly changing customer needs without compromising its business strategies to competition,” it said in a stock exchange statement.

Melco Resorts Philippines, operator of City of Dreams Manila, in September last year, first announced plans to delist from the stock exchange and announced that its majority shareholder, MCO (Philippines) would intend to acquire the remaining outstanding shares held by the public.

However, the company faced backlash from minority shareholders who claimed the offer was unfair.

At the time, Melco said it would proceed with the tender but not the privatization.

After the tender, MCO owned 97.9 percent of the listed Philippine unit, with only 2 percent in public hands. It was delisted in June for falling below the threshold needed for listing.