THE former management partner of Solaire Resorts and Casino in Parañaque City remains unable to sell its shares in the casino’s operator, after a regional trial court in Makati affirmed the validity of a stay order issued in 2014 that prohibited the sale of shares held by Global Gaming Philippines LLC (GGAM) until arbitration proceedings in Singapore are completed.
In a memorandum posted on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Web site yesterday, the bourse said it has received a copy of a Nov. 23, 2017 order by Branch 66 of the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) in the case involving GGAM and Bloomberry Resorts Corp., along with its subsidiaries Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels, Inc. (BRHI) and Sureste Properties, Inc. (SPI).
The order affirms the continuing validity of the court’s decision restraining GGAM, the PSE, and other entities from “disposing of, or facilitating, allowing, implementing and completing the sale or transfer of any of the 921,184,056 shares in (Bloomberry) owned by respondent (GGAM) during the pendency of the arbitration proceedings in Singapore.”
GGAM is Bloomberry’s former partner in managing Solaire, the first integrated hotel and casino estate in the state-run Entertainment City. The shares indicated in the decision pertain to GGAM’s 8.4% stake in Bloomberry after it was tapped to manage the estate.
Months after Solaire’s opening in March 2013, however, Bloomberry decided to terminate the deal, citing GGAM’s supposed material breach of contract, for not spending “any material time” in managing Solaire, and for failing to perform its obligations and deliverables. Both parties have since sought arbitration in Singapore.
Further to the Razon-led firm’s termination of its contract with GGAM, Bloomberry also fired GGAM’s local representative Michael French from his chief operating officer post at Solaire. Mr. French was then replaced by Thomas Arasi, the former chief executive officer of Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands.
In September 2016, the Arbitral Tribunal decided in favor of GGAM, saying that Bloomberry was not justified in terminating its management services agreement with the former. The disputed shares were then partially awarded to GGAM, saying the company can “exercise its rights in relation to those shares, including the right to sell them.”
GGAM had earlier tried to dispose of the shares to institutional investors through a cross transaction at the PSE last January 2014. Branch 66 of the Makati RTC, however, halted the company from pursuing the sale, after Bloomberry won its petition for a stay order.
With the Makati RTC’s stay order, the partial award of the disputed shares by the arbitral tribunal cannot be enforced, until a local court with the proper jurisdiction issues an order, taking into account applicable Philippine laws and public policy, according to Bloomberry.
The Arbitral Tribunal has yet to release an order on the following: a resolution to GGAM’s request to make the award public; to provide a copy of the award to Philippine courts, government agencies and persons involved in the sale of the shares, and to require BRHI/SPI and Bloomberry to inform Deutsche Bank AG that they have no objection to the immediate release of all dividends paid by Bloomberry to GGAM, according to the company.
Shares in Bloomberry added two centavos or 0.16% to close at P12.28 each on Wednesday. — Arra B. Francia
