Philippines not hit by Macau-style slowdown: Tan

Jan 12, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck  

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A joint venture partner in two of Manila’s new private-sector casinos says the Philippines gaming industry is not being hit by the kind of slowdown seen in Macau.

Andrew Tan (pictured), chairman and chief executive Alliance Global Group Inc, made his comments in an interview with the Philippine Star newspaper.

“In Macau, the slowdown is because the big chunk of their market is ultra-high rollers. We don’t have that segment of the market here,” the outlet reported Mr Tan saying.

He added: “That ultra-high roller market is thinning out [in Macau] that’s why their growth has been slow last year but in the Philippines, we have a very different situation because our market here are more on the tourist side.”

In December, a report by credit rating service Standard & Poor’s forecast that in 2015 casino revenue in the Philippines would grow faster than the country’s economy.

Travellers International Hotel Group Inc – a joint venture of Mr Tan’s Alliance Global Group and of Genting Hong Kong Ltd – in 2009 opened Resorts World Manila, located near to Manila International Airport. It has been described as the first international-standard “integrated resort” in the country. The joint venture has been expanding capacity at the venue by building extra hotel rooms.

On October 1, Travellers International announced it had broken ground on the second of its new generation Manila resorts – the US$1.1 billion Bayshore City Resorts World.

The completion of the Bayshore City scheme is targeted for the last quarter of 2018, Travellers International has said in a filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

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