Belle Corp. planning new Clark casino resort

Belle Corp [BEL 2.17 unch; 137% avgVol] [link] confirmed a report that Premium Leisure Corp. (PLC), BEL’s recently-delisted subsidiary, has applied for a gaming license for a new casino resort in Clark Air Base. BEL said that it is still too early to confirm any other aspects of PLC’s plans, perhaps in reference to the article’s claim that SM Investments [SM 902.00, down 2.3%; 67% avgVol], BEL’s parent company, would invest $300 million (~P17.4B) in PLC’s Clark casino resort development.

MB bottom-line: The SM Group has been making money moves recently, both in terms of raising cash and spending it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the group go hard to develop a casino resort in Clark considering how hot gaming has been recently with investors and how warmly the non-POGO tax earnings from the gaming sector have been embraced by the government. The technical matter of where the cash for the development will come from is a more interesting question to me, but it looks like BEL and SM just aren’t in a position yet to comment. I have no doubt that the source in the original article is probably in the right ballpark in terms of how much the project will cost, but it sounds like we are a while away from getting a better look at the details on how that amount will be spent and where the money will come from.

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