Bloomberry offers to purchase 16-ha Solaire lot from Pagcor

Bloomberry Resorts Corp. has offered to purchase the 16-hectare land in Entertainment City where Solaire Resort & Casino is located.

This after the first bidding conducted by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) last December was declared a failure because no bidder made an offer.

In a disclosure on Friday, Bloomberry said its wholly owned subsidiary, Sureste Properties Inc. (SPI), submitted a bid to purchase the 16-hectare land.

“The bidding is conducted by Pagcor as owner of the land. SPI, the owner and operator of the hotel and nongaming facilities in Solaire, is the lessee of the subject land,” Bloomberry said.

SPI also submitted to Pagcor an offer to purchase the subject land by negotiated sale, in the event the bidding fails.

Pagcor set the starting bidding price for the twin lots at P37.23 billion, which must be paid in cash.

Bloomberry’s Solaire has the leasehold rights for the lots through SPI, which has the right to match “the highest complying bid for the properties.”

According to Pagcor, “prospective bidders must be Filipino citizens or otherwise authorized by the law.”

Solaire opened its doors to the public in December 2013.

In the first nine months of 2017, Bloomberry Resorts posted a net income of P5.96 billion, 275 percent higher than the previous year. Bloomberry operates Solaire Resort and Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino in South Korea.

Bloomberry’s third quarter earnings grew 31 percent to P1.86 billion.

Consolidated gross gaming revenues rose 18 percent year on year to P11.64 billion and by 23 percent to P34.572 billion during the nine-month period.

This was driven by record VIP volume, mass table drop and EGM coin-in for the ninemonth period. Jeju Sun also contributed to this growth with its GGR growing 122 percent and contributing P324 million or just one percent to the total.