Belle Corp’s 2020 income from gaming revenue fell 78.7 percent year-on-year, the firm said in a Tuesday filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The group has an interest in the gaming business of the City of Dreams (CoD) Manila casino resort (pictured), operated in the Philippine capital by a unit of Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd.
Such gaming revenue accruing to Belle Corp in 2020 was PHP635.2 million (US$13.2 million), versus PHP2.97 billion in 2019.
“The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic began with declining tourist arrivals” to the country – a target market for City of Dreams Manila – “prior to the implementation of the community quarantines nationwide,” said Belle Corp in its annual report.
It added that had been “compounded by the temporary suspension of gaming operations at City of Dreams Manila on March 16, 2020, in compliance with government initiatives to contain the virus”.
Pandemic-related disruption meant gaming business at City of Dreams Manila was “either suspended or substantially limited during the last nine months of 2020,” said the report.
In February, Melco Resorts reported that City of Dreams Manila posted positive fourth-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation, of US$16.8 million, up from US$5.2 million in the previous quarter. Revenues were US$63.8 million, compared to US$43.4 million in the third quarter.
Belle Corp is entitled to a share in revenues or earnings from City of Dreams Manila’s gaming operations through an operating agreement between Belle Corp’s 78.7-percent -owned subsidiary Premium Leisure Corp, and the Melco Resorts group.
Belle Corp’s real estate operations recorded an 8.4-percent decrease in revenues, to just under PHP3.21 billion in 2020, from PHP3.50 billion in the previous year.
Of the 2020 real estate revenues, PHP2.66 billion came from Belle Corp’s lease of the land and buildings comprising City of Dreams Manila, to Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corp, which were slightly down from PHP2.67 billion in 2019.
Aggregate revenue at Belle Corp stood at nearly PHP7.47 billion in 2020, down 44 percent from a year earlier. The company posted net income of PHP891.7 million for the period, a decline of 70 percent from 2019.
