Finnish fund invests in gaming firm LRWC

Populus Fund, a global equity fund based in Helsinki, Finland, has acquired a 5.15-percent stake in listed gaming firm Leisure & Resorts World Corp. (LRWC), according to the beneficial ownership report it filed with the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Populus Fund, a mutual fund managed by PYN Fund Management, said it acquired 39.71 million shares of LRWC.

Populus Fund concentrates its investments to three to five different markets at a time. Each target market is selected regionally within countries whose index performance is below the global stock market performance.

Under the Finnish Mutual Funds Act, Populus Fund can not own more than the maximum 10 percent of a company’s capital.

The foreign firm’s investment in LRWC manifests its confidence in the leisure and gaming firm’s prospects.

LRWC is looking at a 100-200 percent rise in its net profit this year on the continued strong performance of its bread and butter business — bingo, and Internet gaming operations.

Net income is seen to reach P120 million by the end of the year compared with only P64.1 million in 2005.

For the first six months of the year, LRWC posted a net income of P58.28 million, up 131 percent from the previous level on higher sales from its bingo operations, especially its latest hi-tech bingo variant, Rapid Bingo, and additional earnings contribution from 70-percent owned subsidiary First Cagayan Leisure and Resort Corp.

Total sales also went up by 19 percent to P1.59 billion.

First Cagayan, an international host for Internet gaming providers that cater to online players overseas, contributed P69.84 million to LRWC’s revenues.

As of June 2006, First Cagayan had a total of 22 registered licensees, of which 12 were already in operation. Pending applications stood at eight.

To ensure long-term growth, LRWC will continue to expand its non-traditional bingo operations within existing sites and set up more hosting facilities to accommodate the growing number of online gaming locators in the country.