We’re now just about two weeks away from the March 16 opening of Solaire Manila, the first of four resort casinos being built in the Entertainment City project on Manila Bay in the Philippines. Earlier this week, Credit Suisse analysts tagged the company behind Solaire Manila, Enrique Razon’s Bloomberry Resorts Corp., with the coveted ‘outperform’ tag. Credit Suisse bestowed the honor upon Bloomberry based on its stellar performance of late, as well as great expectations for both Solaire and the Entertainment City project as a whole.
But like the workmen frantically putting the finishing touches on Solaire, the accolades just keep building for Bloomberry. Five days before Solaire opens its doors, Bloomberry will replace residential development firm SM Development Corp (SMDC) on the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi). The PSEi consists of the country’s 30 most liquid, largest-in-market-cap stocks, and Bloomberry’s present market cap of P152.5b (US $3.745b) is nearly double SMDC’s P83.4b. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that Bloomberry’s inclusion in the PSEi was the result of a review conducted over the course of the last year.
As testimony to the Philippines’ burgeoning gambling sector, all four local companies involved in the Entertainment City project are now represented on the PSEi. Bloomberry joins Robinsons Land Corp, which is teaming with Universal Entertainment subsidiary Tiger Resorts Leisure & Entertainment on the Manila Bay Resorts casino-hotel. The other two firms are Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global Group, which has partnered with Malaysian operator Genting on the Resorts World Bayshore project, and Henry Sy’s Belle Corp, which has teamed with Melco Crown Entertainment to operate the Belle Grande. Since gamblin’ and drinkin’ tend to go together like white on rice, we’ll mention the fact that one of the other PSEi alums is none other than San Miguel Beer. Cheers!
