Razon stake in Bloomberry diluted by P5.6-B top up offering

Billionaire Enrique K. Razon Jr. has diluted his ownership in gaming firm Bloomberry Resorts Corporation in order to raise P5.59 billion in fresh capital while increasing the liquidity and foreign ownership of its stock .

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the firm said that Razon’s stake has been diluted following an increased in its public float to 37.17 percent from 33.94 percent prior to the top-up offering of 559 million Bloomberry shares at P10 apiece.

Meanwhile, since some of the shares were sold to investors overseas, Bloomberry’s foreign ownership has already increased to 26.58 percent from 25.57 percent as of Aug. 31, 2023.

Also, because of the issuance of new shares for the top-up offering and the resulting increase in the firm’s outstanding capital, Razon’s stake in the company dipped to 62.27 percent from 65.48 percent even though his ownership remained at 7.12 billion Bloomberry shares.

Razon owns directly and indirectly 35.95 million Bloomberry shares or 0.33 percent and indirectly owned through Prime Strategic Holdings, Inc., 5.94 billion shares or 54.60 percent; through Quasar Holdings, Inc., 921.18 million shares or 8.47 percent; and through Razon & Co, Inc., 225 million shares or 2.07 percent.

Proceeds from the top up offering will be used by the company for debt service and will be fully disbursed by March next year.

Meanwhile, Bloomberry will seek to secure the approval of the PSE for the listing of the shares it issued for the top-up offering to qualified buyers in the Philippines and overseas.

The first part of the Transaction was the offer and sale of shares with par value of P1.00 per share of Bloomberry by Quasar Holdings of 559 million shares of BLOOM at an Offer Price of P10.00 per share.

The second part of the Transaction concurrently upon the completion of the Offer, was the subscription by Quasar, and the issuance by BLOOM to Quasar, of new shares, from the authorized but unissued shares of stock of BLOOM, in the same number and at the same price as the shares sold in the Offer.

The shares amount to about 5 percent of the company’s expanded capital.

“The conduct of an equity fund raising by way of a placing and subscription transaction allows BLOOM to raise equity funds in a most expeditious and efficient manner, with the least cost to BLOOM,” the firm said.

It added that, “the transaction is also intended to strengthen and broaden the capital base of BLOOM, as well as to promote a wider dispersion of the Shares to a broad spectrum of institutional investors.”

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The article was originally published in Manila Bulletin and written by James A. Loyola.