Universal Entertainment Executives Blamed for Failed SPAC Merger
- Head of blank-check company said he got ‘zero cooperation’
- Merger was designed to get resort a stock listing on NASDAQ
Okada Manila in Manila, Philippines.
Photographer: Noel Celis/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Executives at Japan’s Universal Entertainment Corp. spent much of the past year coming up with creative ways to scuttle the $2.6 billion merger of their Okada Manila casino resort unit with a blank-check company, a former partner in the deal told a US judge.
Jason Ader founded 26 Capital Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company, which agreed to combine with the Okada resort to give it a NASDAQ stock listing. But Ader, whose firm sued to revive the failed deal, testified Monday that Universal started working to sabotage the Philippines casino transaction starting in 2022. Universal declared the merger dead on June 30.