Enrique Razon (pictured), chairman of Asian casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp, says the prospects for the company are “far better this year”, with “much lower costs… no more bad accounts, bad debt”.
The executive was speaking to Philippine media on Thursday on the sidelines of the annual meeting of International Container Terminal Services Inc, a company which he also heads.
Bloomberry Resorts developed and operates Solaire Resort and Casino in Manila, the Philippines capital.
The firm also operates Jeju Sun Hotel and Casino on Jeju Island in South Korea, and is on the shortlist for a casino licence in the Republic of Cyprus. It has also proposed building a casino resort in Argentina.
Bloomberry Resorts reported on April 15 a PHP3.36-billion (US$72.8-million) net loss for 2015.
Provision for doubtful accounts rose nearly threefold in the reporting period, to nearly PHP2.57 billion, compared to PHP679.66 million in the year-prior period.
“The restriction in the movement of funds to and from the People’s Republic of China had an adverse impact on certain mainland Chinese VIP players,” the firm said in its annual report.
“As a result, these VIP players were unable to meet their payment obligations leading to higher bad debt provisions for the year,” the company added.
Even with the tougher trading conditions relating to mainland Chinese customers, Bloomberry Resorts said in its annual report that its Manila casino last year had in place 101 contracts with junket operators to bring in foreign VIP players.
Notwithstanding Mr Razon’s upbeat assessment on Thursday of Bloomberry Resorts’ prospects for 2016, the entrepreneur noted in his Thursday comments –quoted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper –that on the firm’s home turf, “supply is growing faster than the market.”
Brokerage Daiwa Securities Group Inc had said in a Tuesday note that while casino gross gaming revenues from the three private sector casino resorts currently in operation in Manila grew by 18 percent year-on-year in 2015 to PHP70.1 billion, the number of casino tables and gaming machines in the Manila market could rise by 53 percent with the expected opening before the end of this year of Japanese entrepreneur Kazuo Okada’s Manila Bay Resorts property.
