City of Dreams proves lucky to Belle; H1 profit at P917M

LEISURE estate and gaming firm Belle Corp. grew its net profit in the first six months of the year by 10 percent to P917 million as it unlocked higher earnings from its stake in integrated gaming resort City of Dreams (CoD) Manila.

The company’s first semester net profit is already 70 percent of the P1.3 billion in recurring net earnings it posted in 2015.

Through its 78.7-percent owned subsidiary Premium Leisure Corp. (PLC), Belle was able to perform well thanks to the gaming income of CoD Manila. PLC owns 50 percent of CoD Manila’s gaming operations.

PLC’s gaming income share in the first semester nearly doubled to P702 million from P361 million in the same period last year.  This was attributed to the buildup in gaming operations at CoD Manila, which held its grand opening in February 2015.

Belle was also able to generate income as the landlord of the integrated resort.

Leasing income rose by 4 percent year-on-year to P1.09 billion during the period.

The property assets located on Pagcor Entertainment City in Paranaque are being leased on a long-term basis to Melco Crown, which operates and manages CoD Manila.

CoD Manila has about two hectares of gaming space, more than 900 hotel rooms under three hotel brands (Crown, Hyatt and Nobu), the DreamPlay indoor family amusement park and around two hectares of restaurant and retail space.

Belle also owns real estate assets in Tagaytay City, including leisure estate Tagaytay Highlands.