Gaming revenues push up Bloomberry Q3 income

Bloomberry Resorts Corp., the listed operator of Solaire Resort and Casino along Manila Bay, said profit in the third quarter hit P165 million as gaming revenues increased.

The company, which is controlled by ports tycoon Enrique Razon Jr., said in a Philippine Stock Exchange filing Tuesday that profit growth during the period represented a seven-fold increase over the previous three months.

Solaire started operations in March this year.

The company said gross gaming revenues during the quarter hit P4.87 billion, up 25 percent over the P3.89 billion in gaming revenues it reported for the second quarter.

Net revenues, meanwhile, hit P4.12 billion, the company said.

The company said revenues from gaming accounted for 94 percent of its total topline, after removing P985.4 million in promotional allowances. Non-gaming revenues like hotel, food and retail earnings accounted for 5 percent while interest income accounted for 1 percent, the company said.

“The continued sustainability of Solaire’s operations is evident in Bloomberry’s third-quarter performance. We see this continuing going into the fourth quarter and well into next year,” Razon, who sits as Bloomberry chair, said in the statement.

Concerns were raised recently after the company in September terminated its management contract with Global Gaming Philippines LLC after a few months of operations. Bloomberry claimed GGAM had failed to perform specific obligations and deliverables, an accusation GGAM has denied.

In its filing on Tuesday, Bloomberry said it had identified problems in systems and operations from the period under GGAM.

“The improvements introduced have generated positive results with total expenses growing 12 percent quarter on quarter, slower than the 14-percent growth in net revenues,” Bloomberry said.

The company’s expenses during the quarter hit P4.09 billion, mainly because of operating expenses, cost of sales, interest expenses, financing charges and foreign exchange losses.

The company earlier said that its current management team was capable of running the casino operations.

“The junket operators signed up in the previous quarter continued to bring in more players to Solaire. Solaire is continuously receiving interest from more junket operators and have signed up a number of them this quarter,” the company said.

It added that two “major junket parties” and large events in the third quarter helped increase the exposure of Solaire, the first of four casino operators to open at the 120-hectare Entertainment City complex.