Bloomberry swings to profit column with P1.46-B income

MANILA, Philippines - Bloomberry Resorts Corp., the gaming firm of tycoon Enrique Razon Jr., reported a profit of P1.46 billion in the first quarter of the year on robust revenues and efficient operations despite the absence of a third-party management company.

This was a significant turnaround from the P1.056-billion loss incurred from January to March 2013.

The listed operator of Solaire Resort & Casino, registered revenues of P7.38 billion or more than 11 times the P661 million generated in the same period last year.

Gaming continued to take up the bulk of the company’s gross revenues, accounting for P7.06 billion or 95.7 percent of the total. This represented a 12-fold increase from a year ago level.

Non-gaming revenues grew five-fold to P286 million with hotel, food and beverage accounting for 3.9 percent of the total followed by retail and interest income (0.4 percent).

“It is significant that we were able to turn a profit after only a year of operation.  This is proof positive that the group, without a third-party management company, has the ability and the acumen to manage an integrated resort.  During the year, we labored on building our core business while working on the expansion that would make Solaire a truly integrated resort,” said Razon, chairman and CEO of Bloomberry.

Early this year, Bloomberry terminated the casino management agreement it had entered into with Las Vegas-based Global Gaming Philippines LLC (GGAM) in September 2013 for failure to perform its obligations under the contract.  The Razon-led gaming firm said GGAM had not spent any significant time to attend to the management of the $1.2- billion Solaire, which was the first integrated casino resort to open at Pagcor Entertainment City in Manila.

According to Bloomberry, management focused on preparing and implementing its marketing strategy and executing policies and procedures that resulted in significantly better margins for the Razon-led gaming company.