The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has extended its equipment lease agreement with Berjaya Philippines’ Philippine Gaming Management Corp. (PGMC) for another year, according to a filing with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
PGMC butted heads with PCSO, when the lottery operator scheduled a bidding process for equipment in 2017. PGMC, filing a petition at the Makati Regional Trial Court, argued that such bidding was a violation of the terms of their agreement, and sought an additional three years’ exclusive right to supply or lease lottery equipment to PCSO. Although the court ruled in favor of PCSO, PGMC has a pending appeal.
The PCSO stated earlier this year its intention to bid out its National Online Lottery System as part of an equipment and systems upgrade, yet proceeded with renewing its lease deal with PGMC from August 23, 2018 to August 22, 2019. In the same filing last Friday, Berjaya Philippines also reported a cash bond agreement between PGMC and PCSO, the amount of which was not disclosed.
Last July, the Philippine Commission on Audit (COA) reprimanded the PCSO for its failure to collect about PHP10 billion ($185 million) from 71 small town lottery operators, who had not remitted the amounts they had promised.
Apart from PGMC, Berjaya Philippines also has businesses in the hotel, food and automobile sectors.
Meanwhile, parent company Berjaya Corporation Berhad filed its financial results for the quarter ending July 31 with the Bursa Malaysia, reporting a profit of MYR76.9 million ($18.6 million), up from a MYR6-million $(1.5-million) loss for the same period last year. Such profitability was in spite of a quarterly revenue of MYR2.1 billion ($517.4 million) from May to July, slightly lower than 2017’s revenue for the same period.
Berjaya Corporation attributed the lower revenue to its property investment and development business segment. Gaming revenue, however, was up year on year, at MYR811.8 million ($196 million), “mainly due to higher contribution from the gaming operations segment.”
Revenue from the company’s hotels and resorts from May to July was MYR130.5 million ($31.5 million), lower year on year “mainly due to lower occupancy rates.”
Pre-tax profit for the period was MYR159.3 million ($38.5 million), up from MYR62.3 million ($15 million) for May to July 2017, “mainly due to improved operating results and the gain on disposal of a subsidiary company amounting to RM76.6 million [$18.5 million].”
On future prospects, the company said, “Given the prevailing economic conditions and global financial outlook, the Directors are of the view that the Group’s operating environment will be challenging going forward.”
