MANILA -Tycoon Enrique K. Razon Jr.’s Bloomberry Resorts Corp. recorded strong profit growth in January to September this year while it firmed up the 2024 completion date for a new integrated casino project in Quezon City.
Bloomberry, operator of Solaire Resort Entertainment City and Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino in South Korea, said net income from January to September this year surged 106 percent to P8.3 billion as gross gaming revenues (GGR) expanded by 26 percent to P44.5 billion.
Overall net revenues were up 33 percent to P36.5 billion, a stock exchange filing on Tuesday showed.
Razon, the chair and CEO of Bloomberry, attributed the gains to strong earnings coming from the domestic market.
READ: Domestic players to continue driving Bloomberry’s growth in 2023, says Razon
“During the quarter, we saw the resilience of the Philippine gaming market as gaming volumes in our mass tables and [electronic gaming machine] segments continued to expand on a sequential and year-over-year basis, despite the quarter’s weaker-than-anticipated economic climate,” Razon said.
The company said VIP, mass table and EGM revenues were at P15.1 billion, P14 billion, and P15.3 billion. These were up 29 percent, 14 percent and 35 percent over the same period last year and also well above prepandemic levels.
The company’s next major bet, the Solaire Resort North in Quezon City, is also on track for completion by March 2024.
READ: BIZ BUZZ: Solaire North opening countdown
“With the opening of our second property next year, we aim to capitalize on this domestic strength,” Razon said.
“We anticipate that Solaire Resort North will strengthen our market leadership position in the Philippines and raise the regional competitiveness of the Philippine gaming industry to new heights,” he added.
Bloomberry raised P5.5 billion from an equity exercise last month to support its expansion. It said that P18.2 billion had been drawn from a P40 billion syndicated loan facility as of end-September this year, the filing showed.