Bloomberry profit rises 71% to P3.7 billion

MANILA, Philippines — Enrique Razon’s Bloomberry Resorts Corp., owner and operator of Solaire Resort & Casino and Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino, reported a 71 percent growth in net income in the first quarter to P3.7 billion.

In a disclosure Tuesday, Bloomberry said gross revenue reached P11.5 billion during the period from P8.6 billion a year ago.

“We are off to a good start. Our fundamentals are solid, our cost optimization initiatives are working, so we should be on track to making this a banner year,”  said Razon,  chairman and chief executive officer of Bloomberry.

In the first quarter, mass table drop and EGM (electronic gaming machines) coin-in generated strong year-on-year growth rates of 17 percent and 23 percent, respectively, to also hit new record quarterly highs.

Even on a sequential basis, Solaire’s mass gaming segment continued to post positive growth with mass table drop and EGM coin-in growing one percent and eight percent, respectively, from the previous quarter.

However, Solaire’s VIP volumes dropped 12 percent year-on-year, but achieved the highest reported VIP gross gaming revenue (GGR) of P7.11 billion, a 39 percent year-on-year growth.

GGR grew 28 percent year on year and 33 percent quarter-on-quarter to a record P13.75 billion.

On the other hand, the company’s business in Korea, Jeju Sun continued to feel the effects of competition and was also negatively affected by the decline in Chinese tourist arrivals in the tourist island.

Notwithstanding these challenges, Jeju Sun managed to generate P51 million of GGR, down 13 percent from last year.

Non-gaming revenues, meanwhile, rose four percent to P816 million on a year-on-year basis due to higher retail and other income that came from additional rental income from new outlet stores at TheShoppes@Solaire.

The company reported an all-time high quarterly EBITDA of P4.537 billion, 44 percent higher than the P3.16 billion generated in the same period last year and more than twice the previous quarter’s P2.111 billion.