Listed lotto operator Pacific Online Systems Corp. said its wholly-owned unit Loto Pacific Leisure Corp. will acquire 100 percent of Lucky Circle Corp. to expand its presence in shopping malls.
Pacific Online told the Philippine Stock Exchange that Loto Pacific had signed a deed of sale purchasing all the outstanding capital stock of Lucky Circle. Lucky Circle owns and operates 20 online lottery betting stations in several SM malls. The acquisition is valued at P18 million.
With the acquisition, Loto Pacific will effectively take over ownership and operation of the betting stations. Lucky Circle will become an indirect subsidiary of Pacific Online. The purchase will also increase the online betting stations of Loto Pacific to 32 from 12. Pacific Online president Willie Ocier said Loto Pacific would build Lucky Circle’s infrastructure and beef up its working capital.
“We intend to multiply our presence in all SM malls, hypermarkets and supermarkets,Ocier said. He said the company also planned to use the betting stations of Lucky Circle to distribute the two scratch card games of state-run Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
PCSO in June appointed Pacific Online, the exclusive online lottery systems provider of the government in the Visayas and Mindanao, as master distributor of its scratch card games.
PCSO’s scratch card games are called “triple cash and “money bags. Scientific Games Inc., a leading provider of instant lottery tickets in the world, is designing and printing the scratch and tickets to be used in PCSO’s instant scratch tickets.
Scientific Games has also agreed to provide technical and consultancy in the marketing and distribution aspects of the project. The instant scratch lottery ticket is a multi-billion peso a year market.
Pacific Online is majority owned by Belle Corp., the high-end property company of the Sy group that operates the SM retail chain.
Other major shareholders are Abacus Consolidated Resources and Holdings Inc., with 37 percent, and the Tanjong Group of Malaysia, with 20 percent.