Despite the stiff competition in the local gaming industry and the challenging gaming outlook in Asia, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) has achieved a record-breaking net profits with a staggering net income of P293. 1 million this June, Pagcor said on Tuesday.
Pagcor said the amount reflected an increase of over 200 percent or P197 million compared to the agency’s P96-million net income in June 2014.
Cristino Naguiat Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of the state-gaming firm, attributed the June 2015’s net income performance to the increase in the agency’s gaming revenues and the reduced expenses incurred by the state-owned gaming firm.
“We are happy to report that our gaming operations enabled us to generate gross revenues of P3.47 billion for June 2015 alone. This amount reflects a substantial increase of P423.83 million or 13.91% compared to June 2014,” Naguiat said in a statement.
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He said Pagcor also continues to make judicious use of its funds.
“This enabled us to pare down our operating expenses by 4.20% compared to last year and save over P53 million in expenses. This only goes to show that with the right strategies, sound management and marketing plans, we can pull through despite the competition,” the Pagcor chief said.
Aside from what it described as “remarkable” increase in its net profits for June 2015, Pagcor said its total revenues for the first semester of 2015 also increased by 24.20% compared to the first half of 2014.
“Our gross revenues from January to June 2015 reached P24.80 billion. This is P4.83 billion higher than the P19.96 billion revenues that we recorded during the first semester of 2014,” Naguiat said.
“Meanwhile, our net income in the first semester of 2015 reached P2.38 billion or 81.08% higher compared to the P1.31 billion net income during the first semester last year,” he added.
Naguiat said the new income record of the agency during the first half of 2015 translated to more contributions for the government’s nation-building efforts.
“From January to June 2015, our actual contributions to state coffers and other recipients of Pagcor’s funding amounted to P15.61 billion. This is much higher by P4.31 billion compared to the P11.29 billion contributions we made in 2014,” he said.
Naguiat said the higher income generated by Pagcor translates to more funds being channeled to the agency’s various Corporate Social Responsibility programs.
“This only means we can help improve the lives of more Filipinos; we can build more classrooms for our public school students; we can fund more sports development programs and so much more. In the long run, the real winners here are our countrymen,” he further said.
To date, Pagcor said the agency has successfully embarked on several CSR programs that are designed to help various sectors of society.
It has already remitted P10 billion to one of its flagship projects, the “Matuwid na Daan sa Silid-Aralan” which is being implemented together with the Department of Education (DepEd) and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Pagcor said the project has paved the way for the construction of thousands of classrooms in public schools nationwide.
Besides its mandated contributions and socio-civic undertakings, Pagcor has also been religiously remitting billions in cash dividends to the National Treasury.
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“This makes the state-run gaming firm part of the elite Billionaires’ Club or Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) that consistently remit at least P1 billion cash dividends to the government every year,” it further said. IDL