Bloomberry open to selling Korean casino resort interests

Bloomberry [BLOOM 11.22 ?3.4%] [link] issued a clarification to a Biz Buzz article to say that it is “open to the possibility of selling its interest in Jeju Sun Hotel and Casino”, but that there is “no imminent deal with respect to [its] sale”. BLOOM said that there have been “several expressions of interest and offers in the past” for the casino resort, and revealed that there’s currently a “growing interest on the property from potential buyers”. The original article said that BLOOM’s owner, Enrique Razon, is looking to sell its Korean assets to “concentrate on its expansion in the Philippines”, like the opening of Solaire Resort North and the development of its project in Ternate, Cavite. The article quoted a source as saying that the assets have “been for sale for a while now but there are still no compelling offers to date.”

MB BOTTOM-LINE: Mr. Razon is no stranger to operating in foreign jurisdictions (International Container Terminal [ICT 289.00 ?1.4%] is a great example), so perhaps this move could be more of an opportunity cost issue for BLOOM. The government is leaning into developing its international reputation as a travel destination, and the growth of the international gaming segment is a significant component of that plan. I don’t have any special information about BLOOM’s process or the Korean property, except to say that if the Korean property has technically been on the market for quite some time, coming out to say that there’s actually “several expressions of interest” and “offers in the past” and “growing interest” from new buyers is a good bit of defensive play to both advertise the status of the property as “for sale” while making it sound like there’s a good deal of competition for the privilege of taking it off BLOOM’s hands. What qualifies as an expression of interest? How is it quantifying “growing interest”? It’s the same as when a website puts “10 other users looking at this now” next to an item in a shop. It gives a bit of social proof (other people value this property enough to show interest) and tries to add in a sense of urgency (I better act fast or it will be gone). Just part of the sales game.