GGRAsia – Belle 2021 CoD Manila gaming revenue doubles to US$29mln

Belle 2021 CoD Manila gaming revenue doubles to US$29mln

Mar 17, 2022 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

Belle Corp’s income from casino revenue in full-year 2021 more than doubled year-on-year, the firm said in a Wednesday filing. Belle is entitled to a share in revenues or earnings from gaming operations at City of Dreams Manila (CoD) through an operating agreement between Belle’s subsidiary Premium Leisure Corp, and a unit of casino group Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd.

Such revenue was PHP1.30 billion (US$24.9 million) in 2021, versus PHP635.2 million in 2020, an improvement of 104.7 percent, Belle Corp said in its filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Belle said the gain occurred as “operations at City of Dreams Manila improved during 2021, although still with substantial limitations due to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic”.

There had been easing of capacity restrictions in November for the country’s casino sector, including at Entertainment City, the zone of private-sector casinos where City of Dreams Manila (pictured) is located. That property is run by a local unit of global casino business Melco Resorts.

Lawrence Ho Yau Lung, chairman and chief executive of Melco Resorts, had said on March 1, that City of Dreams Manila was now operating at “100 percent capacity” – the first time since “March 2020″ – following the easing of restrictions to deter the further spread of Covid-19.

Belle also separately runs a lottery operation, and has real estate interests, including country clubs and housing development.

Belle stated in its annual results, that, among its revenues from real estate in 2021, PHP807.9 million came from the lease of the land and buildings at City of Dreams Manila to Melco Resorts’ Philippines unit. That was 69.7 percent down year-on-year, it added.

Gaming revenue as a percentage of group revenue, went up by nearly 23 percentage points year-on-year, to 38.0 percent, from 15.2 percent in 2020. Group-wide revenue for full-year 2021 was PHP3.42 billion, down 18.0 percent from the prior year.

Total group net income went down 16.4 percent year-on-year, to PHP745.20 million.