The acquisition plan of the emerging online gambling platform Playtime in the Philippines has recently encountered changes. The company originally planned to enter the Philippine Stock Exchange by acquiring PhilWeb Corp., but due to a significant increase in the target company's stock price, the transaction valuation has risen, and the acquisition process has now been temporarily slowed down.
It is understood that Playtime initially planned to invest in PhilWeb at a price of about 2 pesos per share, but as the latter's stock price rose to 5.40 pesos, far exceeding the expected level, the cost of acquisition has significantly increased. Based on the current stock price, PhilWeb's market value has reached 7.75 billion pesos. Market data shows that PhilWeb's stock price has risen by 68% this month, with a cumulative increase of 286% since the beginning of the year.
Industry analysis points out that Playtime originally had no strong desire to go public, but as the Philippine government's regulatory policy on online gambling became stricter, the company began to seek to enhance its capital operation capability and market credibility through listing. Choosing PhilWeb as the acquisition target is partly because the company is controlled by President's brother-in-law Gregorio "Greggy" Araneta III.
PhilWeb reached a historical high of 24 pesos per share in March 2016, but during the term of former President Duterte, the stock price fell sharply due to policy changes. Subsequently, the late tycoon Roberto "Bobby" Ongpin sold the controlling stake to Araneta at a price of 2.60 pesos per share, with a total transaction amount of about 2 billion pesos.
At present, whether Playtime will resume the acquisition plan is still uncertain, and the market is closely watching the subsequent developments of this transaction, which also reflects the recent high volatility characteristics of Philippine gambling stocks.
