Magnum Leisure Holdings, a unit of businessman Wilson Tieng’s Solar Entertainment Corp, is buying the Philippine hotel and casino operations of Panama-based Thunderbird Resorts for $26.5m.
Thunderbird is focused on markets in Latin America. It owns two casinos in the Philippines, one located in San Fernando, La Union, and another in Binangonan, Rizal.
Thunderbird announced in 2011 that the group and Solar Entertainment would enter into a joint venture to co-own the Philippine operations. However, said it decided to sell rather than to jointly own the Philippine operations in order to build shareholder value.
The sale of Philippine operations would reduce Thunderbird Resorts’ consolidated debt by at least $9.2m. “With the sale of the Philippines, the group now has fresh capital to further reduce debt and to invest in building cash flows in Peru, Costa Rica and Nicaragua,” Thunderbird said.
