{"id":777009069,"date":"2023-09-08T07:39:05","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T10:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777009069"},"modified":"2026-04-22T18:15:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:15:40","slug":"universal-ent-will-not-be-forced-to-complete-okada-manila-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/universal-ent-will-not-be-forced-to-complete-okada-manila-merger","title":{"rendered":"Universal Ent will not be forced to complete Okada Manila merger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A court in Delaware says 26 Capital &#8220;engaged in conduct that should not be rewarded&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- A Delaware judge has ruled that Okada Manila, owned by a Universal Entertainment Corp affiliate, is not obligated to proceed with its SPAC merger arrangement with 26 Capital Acquisition Corp.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The agreement&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/okada-manila-to-go-public-by-merging-with-spac\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced in October 2021<\/a>&nbsp;was intended to allow Universal to combine with its Philippine subsidiary Tiger Resorts Asia and list Okada on the Nasdaq. However, Universal Entertainment called off the agreement, accusing 26 Capital of disregarding SEC laws and misleading investors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Reuters, vice-chancellor\u00a0<strong>Travis Laster&#8217;s decision<\/strong>, issued on Thursday (September 7), determined that 26 Capital &#8220;engaged in conduct that should not be rewarded&#8221;. He said that while 26 Capital retains the option to seek damages, this will be addressed at a later stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This ruling departs from the historical precedent in Delaware, where courts have often mandated the completion of merger deals. Laster clarified that the unique circumstances surrounding this case made it impractical for the court to oversee and enforce its order, which would potentially conflict with a Philippine court order and inadvertently rewarding inappropriate behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Laster highlighted an undisclosed conflict of interest involving the casino&#8217;s deal adviser, Alex Eiseman, who also held a substantial stake in a 26 Capital affiliate. This undisclosed connection raised concerns of bias and a potential conspiracy to mislead Universal Entertainment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A court in Delaware says 26 Capital &#8220;engaged in conduct that should not be rewarded&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"A Delaware court has ruled that Okada Manila, an affiliate of Universal Entertainment Corp., is not obligated to proceed with its SPAC merger with 26 Capital Acquisition Corp. The decision cited 26 Capital's \"inappropriate behaviour\" and an undisclosed conflict of interest, departing from typical Delaware precedent for merger enforcement. This ruling impacts the capital markets strategy for Universal Entertainment and raises governance concerns for SPAC transactions.","focusai_entities":"26 Capital Acquisition Corp., Okada Manila, Universal Entertainment Corp., Tiger Resorts Asia, Alex Eiseman, Travis Laster","focusai_location":"Delaware, Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.7), investor_analyst (0.95), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"SPAC Market Impact?","query":"What are the broader implications of this Delaware ruling for the viability and structure of future SPAC mergers within the iGaming and broader capital markets?"},{"label":"Governance Framework Review?","query":"How will this case influence the due diligence processes and governance frameworks for deal advisers and target companies in M&A transactions, particularly concerning conflict of interest disclosures?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[8986,23789],"class_list":["post-777009069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-okada-manila","tag-success-universe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777009069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777009069"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777009069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777009095,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777009069\/revisions\/777009095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777009069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777009069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777009069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}