Solaire North to be delayed to 2Q 2024: MS

Jul 25, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck  

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The opening of casino complex Solaire Resort North (pictured in an artist’s rendering), in Quezon City in the Philippines, is to be “delayed” to the second quarter next year, says a note from Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd.

“We now expect it to open in second quarter 2024 (previously first quarter 2024) and generate PHP1.7 billion [US$31.2 million] in EBITDA in 2024 (8 percent of Solaire Resort and Casino),” said the bank’s analysts Gareth Leung and Praveen Choudhary, in a preview on the promoter Bloomberry Resorts Corp’s second-quarter results.

Bloomberry currently operates its flagship property, Solaire Resort and Casino, in Entertainment City, Metro Manila. That venue opened in 2013.

The analysts stated “it just took Solaire Entertainment City two quarters to break even on EBITDA in 2013″.

Bloomberry has been developing Solaire Resort North in a central business district of Quezon since mid-2019, but construction was hindered during the Covid-19 pandemic. The property will feature a hotel tower with up to 550 rooms and a gaming area with up to 200 gaming tables and as many as 3,000 slot machines, according to previous information from the company.

In a separate note on the bank’s recent ‘Virtual ASEAN Conference 2023’, Morgan Stanley said – citing information from Bloomberry management – that the budget for Solaire Resort North was PHP50 billion.

Morgan Stanley said the cost was being financed by “80 percent debt… and 20 percent equity.”

The bank added Bloomberry resorts would have PHP20 billion in capital expenditure on Solaire Resort North in 2023, and that “total capex spent by end-2023 will be PHP40 billion”.

Morgan Stanley also said it expected Bloomberry to report company-wide EBITDA of PHP5.2 billion for the three months to June 30, down circa 10 percent sequentially.

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