Alliance Global Closes the Book on Genting: Newport World Resorts Is Now Fully Filipino-Owned

Key Points

• AGI’s subsidiary NWRPI took formal ownership of Genting Hong Kong’s shares in Newport World Resorts operator Travellers International Hotel Group on 15 July 2026, more than three years after the purchase agreement was signed.
• The deal also hands AGI full control of Westside City Inc., the entity behind the Westside Resort project in Entertainment City, due to open in the third quarter of 2026.
• Newport World Resorts has simultaneously moved into digital gaming, with Travellers International partnering with PhilWeb Corp. to power the PAGCOR-regulated NWPRPlay online platform.

On 15 July 2026, a transfer of shares quietly ended one of the Philippines’ most significant gaming partnerships. Alliance Global Group Inc. Through an announcement posted on the Philippine Stock Exchange website, Alliance Global Group Inc. (AGI) revealed that its subsidiary company, Newport World Resorts Properties Inc. (NWRPI), had legally acquired all equity stakes from Genting Hong Kong’s various companies in Newport World Resorts and its affiliated companies. This transaction, which was inked back in May 2023, has already taken more than three years.

“Based on the conditions precedent for the acquisition of the Sellers’ equity interests in Travellers International Hotel Group, Inc. (TIHGI), doing business as Newport World Resorts; Westside City Inc. (WCI); and Adams Properties, Inc. (API), have been fully met,” AGI announced in its PSE disclosure. “As such, the transaction has been fully executed and the appropriate transfer of the respective shares to NWRPI was completed as of 15 July 2026.”

What the Transfer Covered, and Who Sold It?

The sellers were three Genting Hong Kong-linked entities: Star Cruises Philippines Holdings B.V., Asian Travellers Ltd. and Premium Travellers Ltd. Through NWRPI, AGI absorbed their combined stakes in TIHGI, the operator behind Newport World Resorts; in Westside City Inc., which is developing the Westside Resort in Manila’s Entertainment City; and in Adams Properties Inc., a shareholder within the TIHGI structure.

AGI was unambiguous in its filing about what the completion means for Genting Hong Kong: it “has fully divested its investments in TIHGI, WCI, and API, and no longer holds, directly or indirectly, any equity interest in these entities.” Financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed, as they were when the agreement was first announced in May 2023.

Three Years Between Signing and Closing

The original share purchase agreement was signed on 30 May 2023, more than a year after Genting Hong Kong had entered liquidation. Completion was contingent on a set of conditions precedent, none of which were specified publicly in either the original or the final disclosure. The obvious point to be made here is that the process took far longer than originally anticipated. The chief operating officer of Newport World Resorts, Hakan Dagtas, told GGRAsia mid-year 2023 that the deal was in its final stages of obtaining regulatory approval and was set to be finalised within that quarter. This didn’t happen.

The extended timeline did not change the operational picture significantly. AGI had functioned as the effective controlling owner of Newport World Resorts for years before the formal transfer, holding a 60 per cent stake in Travellers International since the property’s earliest days. The July 15 transfer converted that operating reality into full legal ownership.

How Genting Hong Kong Reached This Point?

The roots of the exit stretch back to January 2022, when Genting Hong Kong filed for liquidation after a German court rejected a request to release US$88 million for its shipbuilding subsidiary MV Werften Holdings Ltd. That refusal triggered cross-default events across the group, pushing debts that had reached approximately US$2.8 billion into crisis. Liquidators were appointed and began selling assets.

Among the company’s gaming ventures in the Philippines, which includes its 40 per cent ownership in Travellers International, became one of its most important holdings that has not yet been divested by August 2022. In May 2023, the company was delisted from the Hong Kong stock exchange. This was only days after the signing of the agreement for the acquisition of their shares. Much earlier, in July 2022, the resort had already changed its name from Resorts World Manila to Newport World Resorts.

A Partnership That Opened the Philippines’ First Integrated Resort

The initial partnership formed between AGI and Genting Hong Kong was in 2009 when Resorts World Manila, which is currently the only integrated casino resort in the Philippines, opened its doors to the public. During that time, AGI controlled 60 per cent of the company while Genting Hong Kong owned 40 per cent of the company. The facility gained international recognition and played an important role in making Entertainment City a notable gaming city in Southeast Asia.

The 17-year partnership came to a practical end long before the formal transfer. Genting’s financial collapse in early 2022 meant AGI had been carrying the full operational weight without the corresponding full ownership. The July 15 filing resolved that gap permanently.

Westside Resort: The Bigger Picture Behind the Deal

The acquisition does more than consolidate Newport World Resorts. The company’s indirect holding in the Westside Resort project through Westside City Inc. now allows AGI to have undivided ownership of this project that will be completed by Q3 2026. The assumption is that the Westside Resort will have a casino, 475 rooms and suites in its hotel, theatres, restaurants, shops, and even a spa. Suntrust Resort Holdings, on the other hand, despite having signed a strategic partnership agreement with Travellers International in 2024, retains 20 per cent ownership in the project.

The Westside opening, if it arrives on schedule, would represent a meaningful expansion of AGI’s Manila gaming footprint at a time when the group is also reported to be evaluating a Php16.9 billion integrated resort in Cebu, to be called Mactan World Resorts, located in Megaworld’s Mactan Newtown township. Both Megaworld and Travellers International are AGI subsidiaries.

NWPRPlay and the Digital Layer

Apart from the issue of ownership, Newport World Resorts is also developing its own web capabilities. As of April 2026, Travellers International has teamed up with PhilWeb Corp. in order to provide technological and operational capabilities for NWPRPlay, an online gaming website regulated by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, pending regulatory clearance. This comes as PhilWeb gained accreditation from PAGCOR as a gaming affiliate and service provider some time ago, positioning itself not as a consumer gaming company but as a back-end platform provider. The NWPRPlay deal was its third such partnership within weeks, following similar agreements with Hann Casino Resort, Okada Manila, PT Gaming and NUSTAR Online.

The arrangement signals that AGI’s ambitions for Newport World Resorts extend well beyond its physical casino floor, with the group seeking to capture online players under the same PAGCOR-regulated framework.

Expert Analysis

The completion of this transaction is not really the start of anything but more an overdue conclusion. AGI has been running Newport World Resorts effectively ever since the bankruptcy of Genting Hong Kong four years ago. What matters now is what AGI does with it. Full ownership of Westside City Inc. gives the group unencumbered authority over a second major Manila property arriving in the market within months, while the PhilWeb partnership signals a deliberate move into regulated online gaming. The Cebu expansion, if it advances, would mark AGI’s first move outside Metro Manila with an integrated resort at scale. The Genting chapter is closed; the question is how quickly AGI writes the next one.