GGRAsia – Gaming investor Belle Corp 3Q profit down 23pct

Gaming investor Belle Corp 3Q profit down 23pct

Oct 25, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

Philippine conglomerate Belle Corp reported on Friday third-quarter profit down 22.9 percent year-on-year.

Such profit for the three months to September 30 was just under PHP454.3 million (US$8.9 million), compared to PHP589.3 million in the prior-year quarter.

Belle Corp’s quarterly share of gaming revenue from related parties slipped 23.5 percent in the reporting period, to PHP496.1 million, from PHP648.2 million. That was reflected by the fact its unit, Premium Leisure Corp, saw its own gaming revenue entitlement fall by exactly the same amount and same percentage.

Belle Corp is entitled – via its majority holding in Premium Leisure – to a share of “gaming revenues or earnings” at City of Dreams Manila, a Manila casino complex operated by a unit of Hong Kong-listed international casino developer Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd.

Belle Corp’s management said in discussion of its results that although it “continued to experience growth” at City of Dreams Manila, the group’s overall operating performance was “affected by weaker results” at Pacific Online Systems Corp. That entity leases online betting equipment to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office for the latter’s lottery and keno operations.

Belle Corp’s quarterly revenue from equipment rental and instant scratch ticket sales via Pacific Online Systems plummeted 86.2 percent. Such revenue for the third quarter was PHP143.3 million, compared to PHP1.04 billion in the third quarter of 2018.

In late July, during the financial reporting period ending September 30, the Philippine government said it was placing a ban on all lottery gambling business done under the auspices of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office due to allegations of corruption in the government agency

A few days later Philippine leader President Rodrigo Duterte lifted the ban.

But Premium Leisure noted in its quarterly filing that keno and scratch ticket business was suspended nationally in the Philippines from July 27 to September 27.