Bloomberry grapples with higher cost, tougher casino landscape

Costs related to the opening of its newest project and fewer patrons frequenting casinos gutted the nine-month net income of listed Bloomberry Resorts Corp. by 57.83 percent to P3.5 billion.

In a stock exchange filing on Wednesday, Bloomberry said its revenues had reached P38.5 billion, up by 6 percent versus the same period last year.

The decline stemmed from Bloomberry’s P470-million net loss in the third quarter alone, coming from a year-ago net income of P1.9 billion, due to higher depreciation and interest expenses at Solaire Resort North in Quezon City, its newest casino that was opened in May.

Bloomberry chair and CEO Enrique Razon Jr. likewise noted that gaming volumes had declined at the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corp. Entertainment City, the site of the company’s first integrated gaming resort along Manila Bay, reflecting a challenging business environment.

New gaming resort

Still, Razon said fresh contributions from Solaire North “more than offset this weakness,” resulting in gross gaming revenues (GGR) inching up by 22 percent to P16.3 billion in the July to September period.

Bloomberry’s nine-month GGR rose by 2 percent to P45.5 billion.

Nongaming revenue, meanwhile, jumped by 15 percent to P7.4 billion.

Cash flow as measured by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization declined by 18 percent to P12.6 billion.

At Solaire Resort Entertainment City, total GGR stood at P12.6 billion, down by 5 percent in the third quarter, due to lower volumes across VIP, mass tables and electronic gaming machine segments.

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Nongaming revenue likewise declined by 11 percent to P1.9 billion.

At the same time, the newly opened Solaire North generated a GGR of P3.7 billion, driven by the domestic market. This offset the P19-million loss in the GGR of the VIP segment.

“After its full quarter of operations, we believe that Solaire North’s ramp-up is still on pace,” Razon said in a statement.

Solaire Korea’s Jeju Sun incurred a GGR loss of P8 million in the third quarter, versus P14.7 million in the same quarter last year. Last month, Bloomberry obtained a P72-billion lifeline from four local banks to repay an existing debt as it works to improve its bottom line and scale up operations at Solaire North.