For 2018, Travellers International Hotel Group, the owner and operator of Resorts World Manila in the Philippines, recorded a profit of $26.6 million, almost 400% higher than a year earlier. Part 
of this gain came from an insurance payout stemming from an arson and robbery from June 2017 that amounted to $32.59 million, meaning the company would have experienced a loss if it weren’t for the payout. Because of this, Japanese brokerage Nomura has revised its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for Travellers for both this year and for 2020.
The EBITDA is now expected to be lower than previously forecast. Nomura analyst Thomas Earl Huang indicated that the company’s revenues “surprised on the upside” by increasing 9% year-on-year, but that “EBITDA margin compression (-7.2 percentage points) overpowered this upside surprise.” In addition, earnings per share forecasts have been reduced by 39% for both financial years.
Travellers took in revenue of $383.711 million, 17% higher than the $328.14 million seen a year earlier. This was boosted by the opening of the first gaming floor at Grand Wing, a new addition to Resorts World Manila. The Grand Wing added 55 gaming tables and 441 slot machines to the resort’s portfolio, but the 17% increase was “outstripped by ramping costs,” according to Nomura.
Huang added, “Opex [operational expenditure] ex-depreciation jumped in fiscal-year 2018 equating to 89% of revenues versus 81% the year prior owing to front-loaded costs. We thus expect EBITDA margin recovery to only begin after the second gaming floor of the Grand Wing comes on-stream.”
The Grand Wing isn’t yet fully operational. It is expected to include a second gaming floor with 400 slot machines and 100 gaming tables and could be ready during the second half of this year. In addition, the new wing will eventually include three international luxury hotels—the Hotel Okura Manila, the Hilton Manila and the Sheraton Manila Hotel. The Hilton and Sheraton have already been launched and, once all the expansion is complete, Resorts World will boast more hotel rooms than any single property in the whole of the Philippines.
