KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Corporation Bhd has proposed to acquire a 70% stake in Ascot Sport for RM525 million cash from its major shareholder Tan Sri Vincent Tan, who is also chairman and CEO of BCorp.

BCorp said on Wednesday, May 12 it had entered into a conditional sale and purchase agreement with Tan to acquire the stake, comprising 56 million shares for RM525 million cash.

BCorp is also proposing to undertake a renounceable rights issue of up to RM614.45 million nominal value of ICULS on the basis of one RM1 nominal value of ICULS for every eight BCorp shares held.

"The proposed rights issue is not conditional upon the proposed acquisition and vice versa," it said.

During the financial year ended Dec 31, 2008, Ascot Group recorded a consolidated net liabilities and loss after tax of RM11.2 million and RM4.6 million respectively.

The Minister of Finance has given its approval for the re-issuance to Ascot of the licence to carry out sports betting operations upon certain terms and conditions.

Ascot proposes to commence its sports betting operation in the 2nd half of the year 2010 with its retail betting operations being housed at 220 selected Sports Toto outlets, subject to relevant approvals being obtained.

In addition, Ascot also proposes to provide telephone betting services to customers who wish to register accounts with them. The
primary focus of Ascot will be on sports betting on soccer games in the initial stages with the aim of increasing their product service offering to other sports in the future subject to the terms and conditions of the licence.