Pacific Online income rose 13% in ’14 on higher lotto revenues

Listed lotto services provider Pacific Online Systems Corp. said net income in 2014 rose 13 percent to P367 million as lotto sales increased, a stock exchange filing last week showed.

Pacific Online said total revenues during the year rose 6 percent to P1.7 billion, a stock exchange filing last week showed.

The company reported the gains even after an “extraordinary charge” of P217 million, which was used as part of a deal to acquire a firm that provides distribution and consultancy services to subsidiary Total Gaming Technologies.

Pacific Online added that operating income was nevertheless higher by 20 percent to P529 million in 2014.

The company is a subsidiary of listed holding firm Belle Corp., which is partly owned by the family of billionaire Henry Sy Sr.

Belle, which owns the land and buildings that serve as the site of the City of Dreams Manila along Manila Bay, operated by Macau’s Melco Crown Entertainment, said profit dipped almost 30 percent to P2.56 billion in 2014.

This was because of the absence of a P1.5-billion nonrecurring gain booked in 2013.

Removing that item, Belle said core profit would have risen 81 percent to P1.04 billion in 2014.

Belle’s consolidated net income would have increased by approximately P464 million (81 percent), from P572 million in 2013 to P1.04 billion in 2014.

Belle also reported a 21-percent increase in revenues to P3.16 billion.

Belle, which developed the Tagaytay highlands leisure property and remains a significant landholder in the area, owns Premium Leisure Corp., the entity that holds the operating agreement with Melco Crown Entertainment for City of Dreams Manila.

That agreement gives Premium Leisure a share in the casino project’s gaming revenues.

Premium Leisure reported net income of approximately P1.34 billion for 2014 compared to a net loss of P8.7 million in 2013.   The boost was partly due to the opening of City of Dreams Manila, which sits on a six- hectare property, on Dec. 14, 2014.