Less than a month after Suncity Group acknowledged that it wanted to forego receiving shareholder input in order to expedite plans for a resort in the Philippines, its Suntrust Home Developers subsidiary turned to its investors for their input on a different, but related, topic. Shareholders of the company have overwhelmingly agreed to allow Suncity to move away from its original business plan and to embrace the thriving industry of tourism. The decision helps to make it easier to push forward with the resort, and other projects, in and around Manila Bay.
Suntrust started out as a real estate development operation in the Philippines. Now that it has “obtained the written assent of shareholders as of … 15 November 2019, representing at least two-thirds of the outstanding capital stock,” for the “proposed amendments to the corporation’s primary and secondary purposes,” the path toward building and operating a hotel and certain casino activities at the Westside City Resorts development has become more accessible and easier to achieve.
The approval also allows the company to explore other tourism options, among which are “acquiring, developing, improving and operating tourism-oriented facilities such as hotels, resorts, private clubs, leisure parks, entertainment centres, restaurants, food and beverage outlets, and other recreational facilities,” according to a filing by the company with the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Suntrust is primarily owned by Suncity Group Holdings, which maintains 51% control of the company. That entity, in turn, is controlled by Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, the CEO of Junket investor Suncity Group Ltd. The Westside City Resorts project in the Philippines is being realized through a partnership between Suntrust and Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. The latter entity, making things even more confusing, was created through a partnership between Alliance Global Group Inc. out of the Philippines and Genting Hong Kong Ltd., the company behind Resorts World Manila. Westside’s hotel casino is expected to be leased to Suntrust per an arrangement that was announced this past October.
That arrangement might hit a speed bump in the near future. According to a report by the Manila Standard from the end of November, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently looking over the paperwork of Suncity’s investment in Suntrust in order to determine if any violations of the Securities Regulation Code had occurred.
SEC Commissioner Ephyro Luis Amatong acknowledged the review, adding that it was being led by the Market Securities and Regulation Department (MSRD). He added, “Initial representation to us is that there is no need for tender offer because control was achieved by the Hong Kong entity through purchases from the market. But MSRD is now looking into that claim to verify. We are determining if no tender offer would have been appropriate.”
