Original opening date was 2018
Kingson Sian, president and chief executive of Manila casino operator Travellers International Hotel Group Inc., says the Philippines-listed company has decided to delay the grand opening of its $1.1 billion West Side City Resorts World entertainment complex, which was due to open in Entertainment City in 2018.
According to the Asia Gaming Brief, Sian said the opening date has been moved to 2020, due to what AGB called “current oversupply in the market.”
“The company confirms that it has sought and secured the approval of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp for a fourth quarter 2020 completion schedule,” Travellers said in a filing last week to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The move was designed “to help preserve the Philippine gaming industry by allowing the growth of gaming demand to catch up and match the rapid growth of gaming supply in light of the operation of the integrated resorts in Entertainment City,” the statement continued. It also made oblique reference to “the gaming movements in the Asia-Pacific region,” but did not elaborate further, according to GGRAsia.
Travellers added that it is “optimistic in the long-term tourism and gaming prospects of the country and is committed in growing both its gaming and non-gaming offerings.”
Travellers is a joint venture of Philippine-based Alliance Global Group Inc. and Genting Hong Kong Ltd. In May, the company announced its gross gaming revenues for the first quarter of 2016 declined 18.1 percent year-on-year to approximately PHP5.57 billion (US$120.1 million). According to brokerage CLSA Ltd., Resorts World Manila—adjacent to Manila International Airport—has lost market share to casino resorts in Entertainment City. Two casinos are already open in the city’s special development zone: Bloomberry’s Solaire Resorts and Casino, and Melco Crown’s City of Dreams Manila. A third casino resort complex, Manila Bay Resorts, a project of Kazuo Okada’s Universal Entertainment. It’s expected to open before the end of 2016.
Others in the market have expressed concerns about possible oversupply. The vice-chairman of Belle Corp., an investor in the City of Dreams Manila scheme, said in April that the country’s government should control the expansion of the casino industry beyond Entertainment City. Yet preliminary data for April indicate a year-on-year surge in gross gaming revenue from the two casinos now operating in Entertainment City, according to brokerage Maybank ATR Kim Eng Securities Inc. “We are seeing indications of a dramatic improvement in growth for Entertainment City casinos with (aggregate) GGR surging approximately 69 percent year-on-year,” said analyst Rommel Rodrigo. That’s a marked improvement over the first quarter, when GGR rose only 6.6 percent year-on-year, to PHP18.07 billion (US$389.6 million), compared to PHP16.95 billion in the same period in 2015.
Meanwhile, Resorts World Manila is hoping to become more competitive with expanded facilities. Phase II added meetings and convention space, which opened in July 2015. It also includes the expansion of the Marriott Hotel Manila. Phase II will add two new hotels, the Hilton Manila and the Sheraton Hotel Manila, expand Maxims Hotel, and add a new gaming area. A Phase IV would add even more hotel rooms and retail space, reported GGRAsia.
