Pacific Online posts 23% jump in transactions

Lottery equipment supplier Pacific Online Systems Corp. reported a significant jump in the amount of transactions it handled for the government in 2012 from year-ago level.

In a disclosure on Monday, the company said lotto and “Keno” transactions hit P11.7 billion last year. This was up by 23 percent year on year and the highest in the company’s history.

Pacific Online has been a supplier for the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) since 1996.

The growth in the amount of transactions the firm handled for the whole year was faster than the 17-percent increase recorded in the first nine months of the year, indicating a sharp acceleration in the fourth quarter.

Pacific Online, a publicly listed firm trading under the symbol “LOTO,” ended 2012 with 3,035 terminals selling various games operated by the PCSO.

Pacific Online’s 75 percent-owned subsidiary, Total Gaming Technologies Inc., ended December with 704 terminals.

Earlier, the company said it was on its way to posting record profit for 2012.

“Consolidated full-year net income may hit P450 million,” Pacific Online chief financial officer Rhederick Inciong earlier said.

Company chairman Willy Ocier said Pacific Online likely benefited from the effects of early election spending in the fourth quarter.

Pacific Online reported that for the nine months ending September, total revenues reached P1.2 billion, an increase of 16 percent from year-ago level.

“This was mainly due to the increases in terminals deployed for both lotto and Keno,” the company said in its latest financial report.

This helped the company post a net income of P281.2 million, up 58 percent from the P178 million in the same period in 2011.

This was “mainly due to higher operating income… accompanied by a decrease in other charges when compared to 2011,” the company said.—Paolo G. Montecillo