Bloomberry returns to profitability

RAZON-led Bloomberry Resorts Corp., developer and operator of Solaire Resort & Casino along Manila Bay, returned to profitability in the second quarter of the year on the back of record-high gross gaming revenues.

In the second quarter, Bloomberry chalked up P1.33 billion in net profit, a turnaround from the net loss of P787 million in the same period last year. This allowed the company to book a first semester net profit of P174 million in net profit, a reversal of the P1.32 billion net loss incurred in the same period last year.

Excluding the P434 million drag from Korea, Bloomberry would have reported P608 million in net profit in the first six months, the company told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday.

All gaming segments reported strong volumes in the first semester, with high-roller or VIP turnover growing by 22 percent. The mass table and electronic gaming machine bets increased by 8 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

As such, six-month gross gaming revenues grew by 17 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of P18.15 billion while non-gaming revenues also hit record high levels with a 29 percent increase to P1.12 billion.

Total revenues net of promotional allowances for the first semester increased by 14 percent to an all-time high of P14.11 billion. For the second quarter alone, revenues surged by 40 percent year-on-year to P8.38 billion.

On the expenditure side, Bloomberry reported that its expenses were flat year-on-year at P12.46 billion.

Bloomberry chair and chief executive officer Enrique Razon Jr. said: “Our hard stance policy on cost and capital management, coupled with our aggressive marketing campaign, has proven to be effective as shown by these outstanding results.  We are bucking the trend in regional gaming which has been showing weakness.  We are confident that this growth streak will continue.”

The second quarter generated the best ever quarterly mass table and electronic gaming machine bets for Solaire since opening in March 2013. Apart from the record volume of bets, a high VIP “hold” or “win” rate boosted gross gaming revenues by 40 percent year-on-year to P10.5 billion for the quarter.

While it’s said that the house always wins, sometimes this “win” or “hold” rate varies. This is based on the element of luck but is also affected by the spread of table limits, a player’s skill and resources and amount of time spent in the casino.