Trading of Suntrust shares halted as listing rules breached

Friday 1st of November 2019

Shares of Suntrust Home Developers Inc. are to remain suspended from trading by the Philippine Stock Exchange after it was found that its deal with Hong Kong-listed Suncity was in breach of backdoor listing rules.

Earlier this week, Suncity Group Holdings announced it has acquired a controlling stake in Suntrust, which is involved in developing and managing the casino portion of the long-awaited Westside City Resort World project.

Under a Co-Development Agreement, SunTrust will be leased the land in order to exclusively operate and manage the main-hotel casino portion of the project for an annual rental of US$10.6 million for a term of 20 years upon date of the handover, and automatically renewable for a further term of 25 years.

The deal marks Suncity’s first step towards establishing the Group’s footprint in the casino and entertainment market of the Philippines.

However, under the PSE’s memorandum, Suntrust is required to give a comprehensive disclosure of the deal, as the investment from Suncity will result in a significant change in its business.

However, the PSE said that Suntrust did not disclose all the information, as some of it was found in Suncity’s own filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

“The Exchange [PSE] further noted that there was other information reported in the public announcement of the Suncity Group that were not disclosed to the Exchange,” it said.