Asiabest readies public float plan in Tiger Asia takeover

By Arra B. Francia, Reporter
ASIABEST Group International, Inc. (ABG) has submitted a compliance plan to ensure that its public float will stay within the minimum requirement after the proposed takeover of Tiger Resort Asia Limited (Tiger Asia).
In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Thursday, ABG said its public float will drop to 6.1% — significantly lower than its current public ownership of 33.97% — after the closing of its share purchase agreement (SPA) with Tiger Asia.
The listed firm earlier disclosed that it will sell 200 million common shares of ABG worth a total of P646.5 million to Tiger Asia by Nov. 12. The shares comprise two-thirds of the company’s outstanding stock, paving the way for a potential backdoor listing for Tiger Asia.
Under the compliance plan, ABG will transfer the shares of current stockholders owning more than 10% of the outstanding capital stock to public investors.
It will likewise suggest that shareholders owning more than 10% of the firm to tender their shares during the conduct of the tender offer.
“In the conduct of tender offer, stockholder/s owning more than 10% may tender their shares to decrease their shareholding to less than 10% in order to be considered as a public investor in accordance with the guidelines in determining public shareholders and thereby, become eligible for purposes of meeting the MPO (minimum public ownership),” the company said.
A 10% public float is the minimum requirement imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission on listed companies. The country’s corporate regulator targets to hike the floor to 20% in the future, in order to increase liquidity in the market. The 20% MPO is now being implemented for companies seeking to conduct an initial public offering.
Tiger Asia is the majority shareholder of Tiger Resort, Leisure, and Entertainment, Inc., which operates integrated resort and casino Okada Manila. The property is one of three leisure destinations in the state-run Entertainment City, offering 500 table games and 3,000 slot machines for its casino component. Its hotel component also features around 993 guest rooms alongside food and beverage establishments.
The company is pursuing the transaction with ABG in order to list the shares of the casino operator at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
“However, at the current time, the detailed benefits that are expected to be accrued to ABG may not yet be quantified or determined as ABG has no information on the backdoor listing plan of Tiger Asia,” the company said.
Trading of ABG shares have been suspended since Sept. 11 to give investors time to digest the backdoor listing plans of the company. The PSE will lift the suspension on Sept. 21.
ABG’s market capitalization stood at P12.33 billion before the trading suspension.