By James A. Loyola

Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corporation (MRP), which operates the City of Dreams casino and resort, reported that its parent company MCO (Philippines) Investments Limited is no longer seeking the voluntary delisting of the gaming firm.

MRP filed a letter with the Philippine Stock Exchange on October 19, 2018 formally withdrawing its Petition and Amended Petition for Voluntary Delisting.

However, Melco said in a disclosure to the PSE that MCO will continue to proceed with the voluntary tender offer for up to 1.57 billion publicly-owned MRP shares.

“Such Tender Offer shall be conducted for the purpose of increasing the Bidder’s shareholding interest in the Issuer, instead of for the purpose of voluntary delisting of MRP,” the firm said.

The Tender Offer was originally scheduled to start on October 22, 2018, but, due to the change in the purpose of the Tender Offer, MCO will defer the Tender Offer.

MRP said the new Tender Offer period “will be stated in the Amended Tender Offer Report to be filed by the Bidder to reflect, among other things, the amended purpose of the Tender Offer and the updated Tender Offer schedule.”

“MCO intends to file a Second Amended Tender Offer with the updated tender offer schedule in the week of October 22, 2018,” said MRP.

In response to numerous complaints against its tender offer price, MRP had earlier put its foot down and insisted that the price is fair and that it will pursue delisting even if it is not supported by minority shareholders.

Stock analysts have noted that the tender offer price of P7.25 per share puts it below the value of comparable gaming firms in the Philippines and Macau.

They also said it represents a discount to the consensus fair value estimate of MRP’s share price and is unfair since it is heavily discounted compared to previous MRP stock offerings despite the expected turnaround in the revenues and profits of the company.