City of Dreams studies expansion to new site

MANILA, Philippines — The opening of a second location of integrated resort and casino City of Dreams (COD) is still being studied, a top-ranking official of Premium Leisure Corp. (PLC) said.

“The expansion of City of Dreams is being studied by our partners as well as ourselves,” PLC chairman Willy Ocier said at the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting yesterday.

PLC has a share in casino gaming revenues of COD through its 100-percent owned subsidiary Premium Leisure and Amusement Inc. (PLAI).

PLAI, along with Sy-led Belle Corp. and other consortium members of the SM Group, is a co-grantee of a provisional license from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR) to operate COD Manila.

The company has partnered with SM Investments Corp. for a cooperation agreement with Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corp. for the development and operation of COD Manila.

Ocier said the current license to operate from PAGCOR is only applicable for its current site in the Entertainment City in Parañaque City.

“If we want to apply, we will have to apply with PAGCOR once we secure another site,” Ocier said.

“We are doing all of these expansion, but we have not identified any location yet,” he said.

Ocier said their expansion initiatives within the current COD site is underway, particularly the conversion of non-gaming areas to more productive gaming areas.

PLC earlier reported a 23 percent rise in net income attributable to the parent to P2.16 billion from P1.76 billion a year ago.

Similarly, the company’s s share in COD Manila’s gaming revenues also jumped by 23 percent to P3.21 billion.

“This increase was brought by the growth in the gaming segments of City of Dreams Manila, especially driven by the strong mass market,” the company said.

PLC is a 78.7 percent-owned subsidiary of Belle Corp.

Last year, Belle Corp. proposed a plan to the Melco Group to expand the 6.2-hectare COD Manila by another hectare, in a bid to add more hotel facilities.