Bloomberry Settles Decade-Old Contract Spat for $300M

A longstanding court battle between the Philippines’ Bloomberry Resorts Group and Las Vegas-based Global Gaming Asset Management (GGAM) was settled Tuesday after more than a decade of bad blood.

Bloomberry announced in a regulatory filing Tuesday it would buy Global Gaming’s 921.2 million Bloomberry shares for US$300 million via a block sale on the Philippine Stock Exchange.

GGAM is a casino development and gaming management company headed by former LVS Corp COO Bill Weidner. It has experience running some of the world’s biggest casino resorts.

Victim of Success

The spat dates back to 2011, when GGAM signed a five-year contract to manage Solaire on its completion. At the same time, GGAM acquired an 8.7% interest in the project.

GGAM also claimed Razon “leveraged his personal relationships in the Philippine stock market to unlawfully prevent GGAM from selling its equity interest in the project.”

In 2019, an arbitration panel in Singapore ordered Bloomberry to pay $296 million to GGAM as compensation for wrongful termination, lost management fees, attorneys’ fees, and court costs. In 2021, Singapore’s highest court upheld the award.

But Bloomberry argued the award could only be enforced in the Philippines “through an order of a Philippine court of proper jurisdiction.”

Case Moves to New York

In 2021, GGAM sued Bloomberry in New York, asking the court to enforce the Singapore tribunal’s decision against Razon’s U.S. assets. The lawsuit claimed these were concealed through a vast network of shell companies. Those included energy and mineral holdings in the Appalachian Basin acquired from T. Boone Pickens for $150 million, Steve Wynn’s former residence at the Plaza purchased for $24.4 million, and various substantial real-estate assets in New York.

The agreement to settle came after the New York court declined a motion last year by Bloomberry to dismiss the case.  The settlement deal puts an end to all pending cases between the two parties, including those in Nevada, the Philippines, and Singapore, Bloomberry said Tuesday.