Bloomberry earnings drop 20% to P1.64 billion in Q2

MANILA, Philippines — Enrique Razon’s Bloomberry Resorts Corp., owner and operator of the Solaire Resort & Casino in Parañaque and Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino in South Korea, reported a 20 percent drop in its second quarter net income.

Net income declined to P1.64 billion due to the 125 percent increase in interest expense and higher foreign exchange losses from Korea. 

Despite the higher financing cost, the Philippine operation was able to match the reported profits of last year, Bloomberry said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.

Bloomberry’s first half net earnings grew 29 percent to P5.3 billion.

Enrique Razon Jr., Bloomberry chair and CEO, said the company continues to make progress toward establishing a solid enterprise.

“Our fundamentals remain strong, and we look forward to a busy second half and end 2018 with robust full year results,” he said.

In the second quarter, Solaire’s VIP volume grew five percent year-on-year.  Due to a lower 2.49 percent VIP hold rate compared to the previous quarter’s 3.61 percent, Solaire’s VIP gross gaming revenue of P4.666 billion was 25 percent lower year on year.

On a cumulative basis, Solaire’s VIP volumes declined four percent to P384.26 billion, while GGR grew four percent to P11.78 billion.

Mass table drop and EGM coin-in posted strong growth rates of 21 percent and 19 percent, respectively, to hit new record quarterly highs. 

In the second quarter, Solaire generated P10.98 billion and P53.202 billion of mass table drop and EGM coin-in, respectively.

 For the first half, Solaire’s mass table drop grew 19 percent to P20.733 billion while its EGM coin-in grew even faster at 21 percent to P105.23 billion.

Non-gaming revenues increased by 15 percent in the second quarter  to P908.6 million.

This brought first half non-gaming revenues to P1.72 billion, up  9.4 percent due to higher frequency of productions in the Theatre at Solaire, the opening of more retail outlets at The Shoppes as well as improved hotel occupancy in both the Bay and Sky Towers.