Belle’s 1H profit down 34.7%
LEISURE estate and gaming firm Belle Corp. saw a 34.7 percent year-on-year drop in first semester net profit to P751.84 million due to non-recurring items that bloated earnings in the comparative period last year.
Excluding one-off items, Belle’s net income for the first semester would have been P425.4 million, 103 percent higher than the level in previous year, the company told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday.
Six-month revenues surged by 158 percent year-on-year to P2.76 billion with the gaming income share of Premium Leisure Corp.(PLC) from integrated resort City of Dreams Manila (COD Manila) – which had a soft opening in December 2014 – coming in at P360.7 million.
Revenues for the first semester were also boosted by the consolidation of Pacific Online Systems Corp., with revenues comprised of equipment lease rentals, instant scratch ticket sales and commission income included in “other revenues.” Belle also posted higher interest income for the period.
Apart from owning half of the gaming operations of the brand-new $1-billion COD Manila, PLC has a 34.5 percent interest in Pacific Online. Belle in turn owns 79 percent of PLC, which was refocused into a gaming investment firm.
Belle also sold more real estate and club shares in the first semester, resulting in a 217.9-percent year-on-year growth in revenues from this segment amounting to P323.62 million.
Including net profit attributable to minority interest, Belle’s six-month net profit fell by 50 percent to P836.5 million.
The decline in six-month earnings was mostly due to the one-time reversal of investment loss reserves by PLC in 2014 amounting to P1.22 billion alongside some after-gain tax on the redemption of some retail bond holders. Last year, PLC realized gains from the consolidation of some property assets into parent Belle, the reversal of provision for impairment in Legend International Resorts Hk Ltd. and the higher market valuation of gaming assets transferred into its books when it was converted by Belle into its gaming arm.
