Okada, Cojuangco seen teaming up for casino deal
The potential tandem of Japanese gaming mogul Kazuo Okada and businessman Antonio O. Cojuangco may be ready to place their bets on the Phillippine gaming industry with the start of a $2-billion casinoresort project in Entertainment City next year.
Sources from Okada’s camp confirmed to The STAR a partnership brewing between the two busi- ness tycoons following a recent share sale involving Okada- and Cojuangco-led firms.
In a filing with Japan’s Jasdaq Securities Exchange dated May 15 this year, Okada’s Universal Entertainment Corp. announced the exclusion of Eagle II Holdings as a group subsidiary after it unloaded all of its shareholdings in the affiliate.
Universal Entertainment said it sold all of its entire 40-percent stake in Eagle II Holdings to All Seasons Hotels & Resorts Corp., a local firm in which Cojuangco serves as president.
Eagle II Holdings is an affiliate company of Universal Entertainment related to the firm’s $2-billion Manila Bay Resorts project along Manila Bay.
The Okada Group, one of four licensees of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. ( Pagcor) to operate in Entertainment City, has been in search of a local partner after a deal with Century Properties Group Inc. of former ambassador Jose Antonio turned sour last year.
The Okada group is barred from starting commercial operations of the megacasino project without a local partner under the country’s foreign ownership rule.
Officials of Tiger Resorts Leisure and Entertainment Inc., an affi liate of Japan’s Universal Entertainment, last week indicated that the group may have finally found a local partner, saying that it would be announced “in the very near future.”
The officials, likewise, said the group is “actively targeting to open the property by 2016.”
Manila Bay Resorts is set to be the third of four integrated resort- casinos to open in Pagcor ’ s Entertainment City.
The project was supposed to open this year, but has been pushed back to next year due land ownership issues.
Solaire Resort and Casino of Bloomberry Resorts Corp. was the first to open in Entertainment City – seen as the country’s answer to Macau and Las Vegas – followed by City of Dreams Manila of Macau-based casino giant Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd.
Completing the four components of Entertainment City is another integrated resort casino project by Alliance Global Group Inc. of Andrew Tan and Genting Hong Kong Ltd.