GGRAsia – Belle Corp gaming income down 17pct in year to Sept

Belle Corp gaming income down 17pct in year to Sept

Nov 07, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

Belle Corp’s casino revenue generated from its share of gaming business at City of Dreams Manila fell by 16.6 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2024, to nearly PHP1.50 billion (US$25.5 million), it said in a Thursday filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Belle is entitled to a share in revenues or earnings from gaming operations at City of Dreams Manila (pictured) through an operating agreement between Belle’s subsidiary Premium Leisure Corp, and a unit of casino group Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd.

Belle’s aggregate net income for the nine months to September 30 was just below PHP1.53 billion, down 22.2 percent from a year earlier. The group also separately runs a lottery operation and has real estate interests.

“The decrease in bottom line is mainly attributed to lower revenues from the gaming business units,” stated the firm in its latest quarterly report.

Pacific Online Systems Corp, which leases online betting equipment to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office for their lottery operations, posted revenues of PHP398.0 million in the year-to-September, a 20.8-percent decline from the prior-year period. Belle, via Premium Leisure, controls 50.1 percent of Pacific Online.

Belle reported group-wide consolidated revenues of PHP4.10 billion for the nine months ended September 30, down 4.7 percent from the prior-year period.

The company stated in its unaudited results for the nine-month period that its revenues from real estate operations rose by 10.1 percent year-on-year, to nearly PHP2.21 billion. Just above PHP1.74 billion was derived from the lease of the land and buildings at City of Dreams Manila, to Melco Resorts’ Philippines unit. That was up 15.8 percent from a year earlier, it added.

Premium Leisure voluntarily delisted its shares from the main board of the Philippine bourse with effect from July 9. As part of that process, Belle priced a tender offer – for all of the outstanding common shares of Premium Leisure – at PHP0.85 apiece.

Premium Leisure is said to be planning to invest at least US$300 million in a separate casino resort in Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga province, in the Philippines.