PH Resorts Group Holdings Inc. said Friday it obtained an advance of $42.5 million from Emerald Development Holdings Ltd., an offshore entity wholly-owned by Udenna Corp. of businessman Dennis Uy.
PHR said in a disclosure to the stock exchange the proceeds from the advance would fund the ongoing construction of The Emerald Bay Resort and Casino, PHR’s flagship project in Mactan, Cebu.
“This advance represents a significant step in realizing the completion of The Emerald Bay Resort and Casino,” PHR president and chief executive Raymundo Martin Escalona said.
“We are very excited to finish the first integrated resort in the Philippines outside of Entertainment City in Metro Manila,” he said.
The Emerald Bay Resort and Casino is a $600-million integrated resort and casino project that is slated for completion by end-2020.
Phase 1 of The Emerald involves the construction of 400 hotel rooms while its gaming area will have 100 tables and 600 electronic gaming machines.
Phase 2 is expected to have a9,400 square meters of aggregate gaming floor area, a five-star hotel with 1,300 rooms and F&B and retail areas covering 5,700 square meters and 7,600 square meters, respectively.
PH Resorts was previously looking at selling shares to raise fresh capital to fund the casino projects. It filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission an application to sell up to 2.054 billion in common shares with an indicative offer price of up to P9 apiece to raise as much as P18.48 billion in proceeds.
The company decided to defer the follow-on offering in March because of the poor market condition.
It said it remained keen on conducting a share sale to widen its public float.
Aside from The Emerald Bay Resort and Casino, PHR is also constructing an integrated casino and resort in Clark Freeport, Pampanga.
Udenna is the holding company of Uy which has investments in gas and retail through Phoenix Petroleum; shipping and logistics through Chelsea Logistics; property development and management through Udenna Land; education and food through Gruppo Enderun; and infrastructure development through Udenna Infrastructure.