BVI Company News

Australia’s second-richest man, gaming and media magnate James Packer, whose joint venture with Lawrence Ho Yau-lung is making billions of dollars of investments in Macau, currently is in talks for building a US$1.5 billion casino resort in the Philippines.

The Philippines is one of several Asian countries aiming to take piece of gaming tourism boom in Macau. Last year, legislation was passed in the jurisdiction that allows issuing gaming licences to private firms, and Mr Packer is now revealed as the owner of British Virgin Islands-registered Bloomsbury Investments – one of four private development companies tipped by state company Philippine Amusement & Gaming Corp (Pagcor) to obtain gaming licence for a number of Las Vegas-style mega resorts in Manila Bay. It is worth noting that three of these four firms have ties to Macau.

The BVI company of Mr Packer has already submitted a  US$100 mln deposit towards plans to develop a 1,700-room resort and convention centre complex. Now, since foreign investors could only take control over up to 49% of the Manila Bay projects, Mr Parker is negotiating to secure a local partnership with the Alvarez family, which owns the Columbian Autocar Corp., the largest manufacturer and distributor of autos and buses in the Philippines.

Mr Packer has joint venture partnership with Mr Ho whose Melco International Development formed an exclusive partnership with Crown (formerly Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd) to develop casino projects in the region. Each of these companies has a 37.9% stake in Nasdaq-listed Melco Crown Entertainment (Macau), which operates the US$58 mln Crown Macau on Taipa Island, and builds the US$2.3 billion project called the City of Dreams. However, current Philippine project, initiated by Mr Parker personally, did not involve the joint venture.

The Board of Investments approved grant of incentives to the 14-billion power plant project of Global Business Power Corp. in Toledo (Philippines), the company which is partially owned by George Ty’s Metrobank Group. Power plants will start commercial operations in December 2010, and the project will address the power crisis in the territory by 2010 brought on by rising demand and insufficient power supply.

Global Business Power Corp. is a joint venture between British Virgin Islands-registered ARETA Offshore Ventures Ltd., and Filipino investors. The BVI company owns 50%, 38% are owned by Global Business Holdings Corp., and the remaining 12% stake is owned by Metrobank’s First Metro Investment Corp. The main subsidiaries of Global Business Power are Toledo Power Co., Mirant (Philippines) Island Generation Corp., and Claredon Tower Holdings Inc.