Travellers, a joint venture between casino operator Genting Hong Kong Ltd. and Philippine conglomerate Alliance Global Group Inc., said it could go to the debt market to seek funding while waiting for the right time to list its shares.
The company has deferred its listing to September or October from an original plan to launch the IPO this month due to market volatility. It is looking to use the proceeds to fund the expansion of its Resorts World Manila integrated tourism estate near terminal 3 of Manila's international airport.
"We are not pressured, we will just wait for the right timing," Travellers President Kingson Sian said regarding the IPO. "We can go to the debt market."
Sian said the company was determined to finish the expansion project by 2016 despite the IPO delay.
The Philippines is Asia's newest top-end gambling destination after Bloomberry Resorts Corp. opened in March the first phase of its $1.2-billion casino-hotel complex in Manila's Entertainment City complex.
The local unit of Macau casino operator Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd is set to open by middle of next year its $1 billion casino-hotel project also in the Entertainment City.
The expansion of the existing Resorts World complex involves a convention center, an additional 1,100 hotel rooms and gaming facilities.
"It will effectively double what we have currently in Resorts World Manila," Sian told reporters after a stockholders' meeting of Megaworld Corp, a Travellers shareholder and another unit of Alliance Global.
Bloomberry is completing the second phase of its Solaire project by the third quarter of 2014, which features a new hotel, high-end retail outlets, theatres and more restaurants.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
