BIZ BUZZ: Razon’s Jeju casino up for sale (again)

Rumors are resurfacing that Enrique Razon Jr.’s Bloomberry Resorts Corp. is moving to sell Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino in South Korea as gamblers return to travel.

Bloomberry, after a failed attempt to sell Jeju Sun in 2016, is now focused on offloading the overseas asset to concentrate on its expansion in the Philippines. After all, the company has a busy pipeline of domestic projects with the expected opening of Solaire Resort North in Quezon City by the middle of 2024 before proceeding with the development of its sprawling property in Ternate, Cavite.

READ: Sale of Bloomberry’s Korean casino falls through

The South Korean casino has been recovering since the pandemic shutdowns, albeit at a slow pace.

To illustrate, its gross gaming revenues for the entire third quarter last year had surged three times to P14.7 million. It’s an impressive growth rate—until one compares this with sister integrated gaming resort Solaire Resort & Casino Hotel along Manila Bay, which recorded gaming revenues of P148 million per day during that same quarter for a total of P13.3 billion.

A source told Biz Buzz that Jeju Sun has been for sale for a while now but there are still no compelling offers to date.

A top dealmaker and investment banker thinks this asset disposal makes good sense for Bloomberry.

“The Korea operations have been a losing proposition for Bloomberry, so it makes sense for them to divest from that market,” Juan Paolo Colet, managing director at investment bank China Bank Capital Corp., told Biz Buzz. “At this time, Bloomberry is more focused on domestic growth, but I will not be surprised if they eventually reinvigorate their international strategy,” he added. —Miguel R. Camus

Data center push

PLDT Inc., through its data center arm ePLDT Inc., is firming up investments in facilities housing critical servers and information technology networks in the advent of heightened digitalization.

Victor Genuino, ePLDT president and CEO, said they were lining up three data centers—now in the design phase.

READ: PLDT expands data center capacity on PH’s sustained digitalization

By July, the company is set to open its 11th data center in Laguna. It has a 50-megawatt (MW) capacity, equivalent to powering up five shopping centers the size of Mall of Asia, he said.

The PLDT unit currently has 10 data centers with a combined capacity of 50 MW.

“We hope to be able to attract more investment from our hyperscaler partners while at the same time, service the country’s growing need for data center services from both the private and public sectors,” Genuino said. —Tyrone Jasper C. Piad