Solaire Resort owner swings back to profit

BLOOMBERRY Resorts Corporation swung to a profit in the third quarter, largely owing to soaring gaming revenues at its Solaire Resort & Casino.

In a regulatory filing, Bloomberry reported a net income of P1.417 billion in the July to September period, reversing a net loss of P189.48 million during the same months in 2015. Quarter on quarter, earnings grew 7%, mainly due to foreign exchange gains from its Korean operations.

This brought the nine-month earnings to P1.59 billion, a turnaround from the net loss of P1.5 billion a year ago.

“Bloomberry’s return to profitability in nine-month 2016 was even more pronounced in its Philippine operations — Solaire generated P1.951 billion in net profit this year versus a P594 million net loss in nine-month 2015,” the company said.

Third quarter consolidated revenues jumped 11% to P7.85 billion, from P7.09 billion a year ago.

Bloomberry noted the third quarter “produced the best ever quarterly VIP volume, mass table drop and EGM (electronic gaming machines) coin-in for Solaire with year-on-year growth rates of 61%, 10% and 16%, respectively.

Total revenues during the January to September period went up 13% to an all-time high of P21.961 billion, from P19.424 billion a year ago.

Gross gaming revenues increased by 14% to a record P28.02 billion, while non-gaming revenues surged 24% to P1.719 billion.

Bloomberry said third quarter expenses were flat year-on-year to P6.412 billion, attributed to a change in the gaming tax structure as required by Philippine gaming regulator at the beginning of the quarter. This caused expenses from its Philippine operations to go up 16% to P6.397 billion.

For the nine-month period, Bloomberry’s total expenses were still flat at P18.876 billion.