Philippines real estate firm Belle Corporation has reported a 70% year-on-year decline in net income for FY2020, impacted primarily by a 79% fall in its share of gaming revenue from City of Dreams Manila.
Belle Corp, owner of the land and buildings that comprise City of Dreams Manila – which it leases to Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) – earns a share of revenues from the integrated resort via its 78.7%-owned subsidiary Premium Leisure Corp (PLC).
According to the company’s Annual Report, published Tuesday, gaming revenue share fell from Php2.98 billion (US$61.6 million) in 2019 to Php635.2 million (US$13.1 million) last year due to gaming operations being suspended in March and capacity limited to a maximum 30% upon resumption.
As a result, the company’s net income, which also includes its real estate and property management segments, fell 70% to Php891.7 million (US$18.4 million).
Revenue from real estate proved more resilient, down just 8% year-on-year to Php3.21 billion (US$66.3 million) of which Php2.66 billion (US$55.1 million) came from Belle’s lease of the City of Dreams Manila land to Melco, only slightly down from Php2.67 billion (US$55.3 million) in 2019.
However, revenue of Pacific Online Systems Corporation, which leases online betting equipment to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office for their lottery and keno operations, fell 67% to Php328.4 million (US$6.8 million). Pacific Online is 50.1% owned by PLC.
In outlining its 2020 results, Belle Corp highlighted the fact that it had managed to stay profitable “in spite of economic headwinds caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as by the Taal Volcano eruption in January 2020 which affected its real estate operations in Tagaytay City and Batangas.”
