Domestic players to continue driving Bloomberry’s growth in 2023, says Razon

MANILA  -Billionaire Enrique Razon Jr.’s Bloomberry Resorts Corp., the operator of the Solaire Resort integrated casino along Manila Bay, said the domestic-focused mass gaming segment will continue to dominate their gaming business for the year as the international market gradually recovers from the pandemic slump.

The Bloomberry chair and CEO said during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Thursday that mass gaming is “primed to set new highs in 2023” amid expectations the economy will continue to expand this year.

Bloomberry saw a turnaround in 2022 after booking full-year profit of P5.1 billion, reversing a P4.2 billion net loss the previous year.

All casino segments rebounded, pushing up gaming revenues last year to P50.1 billion, which was equivalent to 84 percent of the 2019 prepandemic level.

“We now find ourselves back on the trajectory we were forcefully derailed from back in March 2020,” Razon said on Thursday.

He added that international visitors from South Korea and China were on the rise as their respective pandemic restrictions were rolled back.

“Since the two countries, South Korea first and then China, have remove their COVID-19 restrictions and their respective lockdowns, we have been seeing an increasing number of travelers from these two countries,” Razon said in response to a question from a stockholder.

Bloomberry also reported that non-gaming revenues doubled to P6.7 billion in 2022.

Razon said they were banking on growth from non-gaming revenues from their hotel, restaurant and large-scale events segments.

“We aim to maintain Solaire as the paramount entertainment leisure destination in the Philippines by ramping up the number and quality of shows at The Theatre and opening exciting new luxury retail offerings in The Shoppes,” Razon said.

The company’s second Metro Manila casino Solaire North, which rising on a 1.5-hectare property in Ayala Land’s Vertis project in Quezon City, is also on track to open next year.

“On Solaire Resort North, construction activity continues to pick up as we head into the last few months of construction,” Razon said.

“The pandemic has resulted in supply bottlenecks that have caused delays in the delivery of key components for the property. However, we push forward and are now aiming for a first quarter 2024 opening. While the opening date has shifted, our development budget remains intact,” he added.

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