A strong second quarter at Manila’s Solaire Resort and Casino powered owner Bloomberry Resorts to a profit of PHP2.3 billion (US.2 million) through the first six months of the year.
Solaire’s casino accounted for 95.3 percent of the company’s revenues in the quarter, which increased 66 percent over a year earlier to PHP6.5 billion and more than tripled EBITDA to PHP2.4 billion. PSX-listed Bloomberry attributed the profitability to an increase in volume across all gaming segments and its ability to “significantly rationalize Solaire’s costs and expenses,” which “resulted in better margins and massive improvement in the overall efficiency in its gaming and non-gaming operations”.
Solaire opened last March as the first of four gaming resorts approved for a swath of reclaimed land on Manila Bay licensed by the government as a special economic zone called Entertainment City. The US$750 million, 500-room complex struggled out of the gate, and Bloomberry fired the original operating company, William Weidner’s Global Gaming Asset Management.
This year the company says international business has been increasing, boosting VIP revenues. As of June 30, Solaire had agreements with 56 junket operators to bring in high rollers from outside the Philippines.
The property is also being expanded with 65 more VIP tables and 220 machine games, a second hotel with 312 rooms and new leisure amenities. Construction is slated to be finished in the fourth quarter.
