GGRAsia – Bloomberry looking to broaden investment portfolio

Bloomberry looking to broaden investment portfolio

Apr 14, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

Asian casino operator and developer Bloomberry Resorts Corp says it wants to “broaden” its investment portfolio.

The announcement was made on a filing on Tuesday to the Philippine Stock Exchange. The company however provided little detail about its investment strategy.

“Bloomberry Resorts announces its intent to make additional future investments in the interest of enhancing shareholder value,” said the firm.

It added: “Bloomberry’s future investments will be considered within a broader universe of possible opportunities which include gaming, hospitality, and other non-gaming assets.”

The firm stated that, “at this time”, it did not have “any particular investments or acquisitions that are under imminent consideration.” Therefore, Bloomberry Resorts would not “make any investment-related announcements in the near-term,” it added.

The casino operator is headed by Philippine billionaire Enrique Razon. It developed the Solaire Resort and Casino (pictured in a file photo) at Entertainment City in Manila, the Philippine capital.

Solaire’s gaming floor is currently closed, following a decision by the Philippine government to extend the anti-coronavirus lockdown of the country’s main island Luzon until April 30. Hotel and restaurant operations at Solaire remain partially open; however, new room bookings made via the resort’s website are currently unavailable until the end of May, and only existing in-house guests have access to the food and beverage outlets still in operation at the property, according to checks by GGRAsia.

Bloomberry Resorts also operates the Jeju Sun Hotel and Casino on Jeju island, South Korea. A notice on that property’s website on Tuesday said that venue was temporarily closed “until further notice” in order to “improve our facilities”.

The resort group is additionally developing a new casino resort – called Solaire North – at Quezon City in the Philippines.

Bloomberry Resorts reported in March full-year 2019 consolidated net profit of PHP9.9 billion (US$195.7 million) compared to PHP7.2 billion for 2018. The group said net profit grew 38 percent year-on-year despite it “incurring foreign exchange losses and higher interest expenses”. Total 2019 consolidated net revenue was PHP46.6 billion, up 22 percent from PHP38.4 billion in 2018.