Bloomberry Resorts Corp. saw its revenues increase across all of its operating areas in the first quarter of 2019. While this would be welcome news by most, the Philippine-based casino operator can’t jump with joy. Despite the increase, its profit fell by a total of 40% year-on-year.
The casino company presented its unaudited financial results to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, and indicated that its profit was just $42.5 million for the period. This was significantly lower than the $70.8 million a year earlier and Bloomberry explained in an accompanying press release that the decline could be attributed to “meaningfully lower foreign exchange gains and higher interest expenses.”
The company’s chairman and CEO, Enrique Razon, called the results “solid,” adding, “Our net revenues and EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] were driven by our highly-profitable mass gaming segments where our innovative customer experience and engagement programmes continue to reward us with a database of loyal patrons.”
In its gaming segment, which is the bulk of the company’s business, Bloomberry operates the Solaire Resort and Casino in Manila and the Jeju Sun Hotel and Casino on Jeju Island. The company saw its gross gaming revenue (GGR) dip almost 1% year-on-year to $260 million. Net revenue saw an uptick of 0.9%, but was offset by negative VIP GGR at Solaire of 15.9%. The venue’s VIP hold rate dropped 39 points to 3.22%, compared to the 3.61% seen a year earlier.
There was at least a little bit of positive movement in the numbers. Slot revenue increased by 8.7% year-on-year, reaching $69 million, and hotel, food and beverage revenue climbed 7.5% to $18.6 million. Revenue from other areas, including retail, jumped the most, climbing 40.6% year-on-year to $16.6 million.
Bloomberry wants to add another venue to the Philippines, Solaire North in Quezon City. However, there has been some confusion about whether or not the project is going to move forward. It was reported in April that groundbreaking was about to begin, but a few short days later, Razon acknowledged that, even though everything was reportedly in place the start of construction on the venue was uncertain.
