Bloomberry on track to open Quezon City casino

MANILA, Philippines — Ports and casino tycoon Enrique Razon said Bloomberry Resorts Corp.’s Solaire North casino in Quezon City is on track to open in 2023.

“We’re still on track for 2023 opening,” Razon said during the company’s annual stockholders meeting yesterday even as he noted some delays in construction because of COVID-19-related lockdowns.

He said the timing of Solaire North could coincide with a full economic recovery of the country.

Solaire North is expected to meet the burgeoning post-pandemic domestic mass demand for gaming.

“Work also continues at Solaire North, where the pace of construction remains limited, but still on-track for a 2023 opening. Solaire North will be an upscale mass-focused offering that, together with Solaire and the revamped Solaire Club, will profoundly expand our gaming footprint to take advantage of what we anticipate to be a burgeoning post-pandemic domestic mass and regional premium mass demand,” Razon said.

Bloomberry’s consolidated gross gaming revenue or GGR reached P27.6 billion last year, 22 percent higher than the P22.7 billion recorded in 2020.

Non-gaming revenues, on the other hand, declined by 11 percent to P3.3 billion from P3.7 billion.

Consolidated EBITDA, meanwhile, increased by 265 percent to P5.2 billion from P1.4 billion.

“Our consolidated net loss was P4.2 billion, an improvement compared to a net loss of P8.3 billion in 2020,” Razon said.

He said intermittent gaming operations brought about by shifting quarantine classifications, due to surges in the number of COVID-19 cases in April and May then again in August, made it difficult to ramp up operations.

However, the business remained stable and managed to report positive operating cash flow, a complete reversal from the prior year, and higher EBITDA, Razon said.

The VIP gaming segment remained weak as regional tourism was almost non-existent given the constantly changing travel restrictions across Asian jurisdictions. On the other hand, the mass segment’s resilience was apparent.

Razon said that with more and more of our countrymen turning up for their vaccine shots, Bloomberry looks forward to the government further relaxing or even fully lifting COVID-19 restrictions later this year.

This, he said, could also start the recovery of regional tourism.