GGRAsia – Maybank trims BLOOM rev forecast amid fewer China VIPs

Maybank trims BLOOM rev forecast amid fewer China VIPs

Nov 12, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

Maybank Securities Inc has cut its net revenue forecasts for Philippines-listed Bloomberry Resorts Corp (BLOOM) for full-year 2024 and full-year 2025. It cited softness in gross gaming revenue (GGR) and in recent times “fewer fly-in Chinese VIP players” at the casino operator’s flagship property, Solaire Resort & Casino, in Manila’s Entertainment City casino zone.

Maybank trimmed its full-year 2024 net gaming revenue forecast for Bloomberry by 15 percent to circa PHP40.56 billion (US$691.95 million), and that for 2025 by 15 percent to PHP48.09 billion. The cut in estimates was mainly due to “lower GGR” at the Entertainment City property.

In May, the casino group opened Solaire Resort North, at Vertis, Quezon City, north of Metro Manila.

As well as cutting its outlook for Bloomberry’s group net gaming revenue, Maybank also trimmed by 12 percent to its estimate for Bloomberry’s 2024 net revenue, to PHP50.96 billion. For 2025, it reduced it by 12 percent from its previous forecast, to PHP60.27 billion.

Maybank analyst Raffy Mendoza said in a Monday memo: “Although the local gambling industry saw 25 percent year-on-year GGR growth in first half of 2024, this was mostly driven by e-games.”

He stated: “GGR from Entertainment City was down 13 percent year-on-year,” to PHP39.1 billion.

The analyst added: “We attribute this to fewer fly-in Chinese VIP players. We see short-term weakness in Solaire Entertainment City but view Bloomberry’s focus on its mass segment through Solaire Resort North boding well by next year.”

Country-wide, Philippines’ inbound visitors from China and South Korea for the first nine months of this year were both still below 2019-levels. In that period, China supplied only just above 260,000 visitors to the Philippines, which was just 19 percent of 2019-level, Maybank noted.

The Solaire property in Entertainment City had though, in the second quarter, maintained its “leader” position in terms of GGR for that casino cluster, at circa “35 percent”, with Okada Manila and Newport World Resorts equal second, at around “23 percent” of market share in that period, the Maybank memo noted.

Bloomberry had in mid-October announced a fresh PHP72.0-billion syndicated refinancing facility with a group of banks. Such should help with the company’s cash flow, the memo also noted.

“The loan is priced 75 basis points power than its previous facilities with an option to fix the interest rate within the next 12 months, allowing the company to benefit from interest rate cuts. In our view, this exercise results in lighter debt service for Bloomberry’s cash flow while the recently opened Solaire Resort North ramps up,” suggested Mr Mendoza.