Belle income spikes 42% in Jan-Sept

MANILA, Philippines — Strong revenues from City of Dreams Manila boosted the income of Belle Corp., the listed leisure company of the SM Group.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) yesterday, Belle said nine-month income reached P2.7 billion, up 42 percent year on year.

Excluding capital gains on sales of non-core investments of P184 million last year and P373 million in 2016, Belle’s recurring net income of P2.5 billion was higher by 64 percent.

Belle’s share in the gaming income of City of Dreams Manila, through its 78.7 percent-owned subsidiary, Premium Leisure Corp., (PLC)  almost doubled to P2.16 billion.

PLC has an operating agreement with the Philippine affiliate of Melco Resorts and Entertainment Limited (Melco) that accords PLC a share of gaming revenues o earnings at City of Dreams Manila.

Belle also realized increased re-venue from real estate.  Revenue from this business grew 10 percent to P2.4 billion.

Of the P2.4 billion, P1.7 billion was derived from Belle’s lease of the land and buildings comprising City of Dreams Manila to Melco, with the balance of P683 million coming from sales of real estate products and property management activities at its Tagaytay Highlands and Midlands residential and leisure complexes south of Metro Manila.

Belle’s principal assets include land and buildings at the Entertainment City in Paranaque City, which are being leased on a long-term basis to Melco.

 The company also owns significant real estate assets in and around Tagaytay City. These assets consist of premium residential properties for sale and approximately 800 hectares of land held for future development, which are near two exclusive world-class golf clubs and one country club built by the company in the 1990s.