Bloomberry posts 33% profit jump

Bloomberry Resorts Corp., the flagship casino and hotel company of billionaire Enrique Razon Jr., reported higher earnings in the nine months through September as the gaming industry remained robust.

Bloomberry, which operated the Solaire Resort & Casino along Manila Bay, said net income from January to September this year hit P8.57 billion, up 33 percent from a year ago.

Total gross gaming revenues alone went up 21 percent to P45.85 billion during the period. VIP revenues from high rollers led gains at 32 percent, followed by mass tables at 6 percent and electronic gaming machine (EGM) at 18 percent.

Bloomberry said the recent strength in the VIP business was fueled by a “higher than normal” win rate.

“We are now in the last stretch of 2019 and we look forward to delivering a strong set of full year results,” Razon said in a statement on Thursday.

For the third quarter alone, Bloomberry booked a net profit of P3.91 billion, up  245 percent. Gross gaming revenues amounted to P17.11 billion, up 46 percent.

“Growth was driven by higher hold in VIP and strength in the mass gaming segments,” Bloomberry said in its filing.

The nongaming segment delivered P2.1 billion in revenues, or a gain of 23 percent. Most of this came from Solaire, which enjoyed a 91.8-percent occupancy rate in the third quarter, slightly above the 91.7-percent occupancy during the same period in 2019.

Nongaming revenues for the nine-month period rose 23 percent to P6 billion.