Bloomberry Resorts Corp. Chairman and CEO Enrique Razon has confirmed to investors that the company’s second Manila integrated resort, Solaire North, will open next year as planned.
“We’re still on track for a 2023 opening,” Razon said, according to Inside Asian Gaming.
At company’s annual meeting last week, Razon said Bloomberry is ready to take advantage of post-Covid demand with Solaire North, which will be located on 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) of land in Quezon.
“Solaire North will be an upscale mass-focused offering that, together with Solaire and the revamped Solaire Club, will profoundly expand our gaming footprint to take advantage of what we anticipate to be burgeoning post-pandemic domestic mass and regional premium mass demand,” said Razon.
Bloomberry previously reported a 22 percent year-on-year increase in GGR to PHP27.6 billion (US$529 million) in 2021, with consolidated EBITDA up 265 percent to PHP5.2 billion (US$100 million) and net loss narrowed from PHP8.3 billion (US$159 million) in 2020 to PHP4.2 billion (US$80 million).
Razon said the original Solaire Resort and Casino, in Entertainment City in Metro Manila, “operated with limited capacity to one degree or another throughout 2021” but should rebound with the lifting of pandemic restrictions. “If this environment continues, and other Asian countries start lifting their own inbound travel restrictions, then we will have a clear runway to ramp up to pre-pandemic levels,” he said.
Razon also said Bloomberry expects to participate in Philippine Inland Gaming Operations (PIGOs), a local iGaming industry, recently launched by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR). “We are hopeful that in the near future, in the medium term, that [online gaming] will be a large part of the business,” he said.
“So far it has grown strongly and has been delivering substantial revenues monthly from zero a year-and-a-half-ago. We are highly confident in this development and have been focusing on this area.”
Razon said the new property would “profoundly expand our gaming footprint to take advantage of what we anticipate to be a burgeoning post-pandemic domestic mass [market] and regional premium mass demand.”
Philippine casino industry gross gaming revenue (GGR) could reach 85 percent of pre-pandemic level by the fourth quarter this year, said banking group Morgan Stanley in a note last week. The institution cited factors including domestic demand and the reopening of the country to foreign tourists.
