A little more than a year after Philippine casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp. acquired Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino, located on the South Korean Jeju Island, the company announced that it is selling the property.
Bloomberry Resorts revealed in a Thursday disclosure to the Philippine Stock Echance that its South Korea business, Solaire Korea Co. Ltd., has entered into an agreement to sell its 96.23% stake in Golden & Luxury Co. Ltd., the company that manages the Jeju Island-located hotel and casino complex, to a subsidiary of Iao Kun Group Holding Company Limited for the amount of KRW117.5 billion ($100 million).
Under the terms of the agreement, Iao Kun will initially deposit KRW10 billion. The money will be in escrow for a 45-day period. In addition, the amount of KRW4 billion will be held back as contingent liabilities security up until October 22, 2017.
Bloomberry Resorts said on Thursday that more details on the transaction will be disclosed within the next 45 days and if and when the deal is finalized. A due diligence on the shares that are to be sold will be conducted and the transaction is highly dependent on the results from the procedure. It will also have to be approved by the South Korean gambling regulator as well as by other related government organizations.
Bloomberry acquired its South Korean subsidiary back in March 2015. The transaction also included the acquisition of a 20.96-hectare property on Silmi Island, which was followed by a the purchase of a 12.2-hectare portion of land on Muui Island.
The Philippine gambling operator said yesterday that it wants to focus its attention on its projects on the Silmi and Muui Islands and that Iao Kun, on the other hand, has long been interested in entering the Jeju Island casino market. The company has expressed confidence that its Chinese high roller customers will find Jeju Island and its casino offering particularly attractive.
There are eight casino complexes on the island and they are all admitting only non-Korean players. Last year, the country’s main gambling regulatory body ordered a one-month suspension on Jeju Sun’s casino operations for tax violations of the property’s former owner.
