Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corp. said it deferred its planned tender offer on valuation issues raised by some minority shareholders.
Melco Resorts said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it was informed by majority shareholder MCO (Philippines) Investments Corp. that it would defer its tender offer initially scheduled to commence on Oct 3.
The gaming firm said the deferment will be for a period of two weeks or until such time that it otherwise determined.
“MCO will file an amended tender offer report with the update tender offer period at the appropriate time,” Melco Resorts said.
MCO said last week it planned to conduct an involuntary delisting of Melco Resorts that could involve the buyback of up to 1.543 billion shares, representing 27.23 percent of the company’s outstanding capital stock at a tender offer price of P7.25 apiece.
Melco Resorts will need P11.18 billion to acquire all the minority shares, at P7.25 per share.
MCO said the tender offer price “falls within the fair value range” calculated by a firm called FTI Consulting Philippines Inc. A report prepared by FTI Consulting said Melco Resorts Philippines’ shares had an assessed market value of between P6.11 and P7.49.
MCO decided to delist Melco Resorts because the latter’s listed status in recent years had not contributed to its ability to raise funds despite considerable efforts and expenses being incurred to maintain its listed status.
Several minority shareholders questioned the valuation, considering that Melco conducted an equity placement in 2013 at an offer price of P14 apiece.
Melco explained that investors would experience very different financial outcomes “depending on when an investor purchased” shares in the company.