Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming March 2015 20 Moving up in Manila In 17 months at Solaire Resort & Casino, Thomas Arasi has boosted performance and expanded the resort’s footprint. With a beautiful property and an exemplary service culture, not to mention a new crowd-pulling neighbor just down the street, he says Solaire is ready to play at the global level By Muhammad Cohen W hen Thomas Arasi joined Solaire Resort & Casino in October 2013 the US$750 million property was struggling and its billionaire owner, Philippine ports tycoon Enrique Razon Jr, was disappointed. A month earlier, Mr Razon had fired William Weidner’s Global Gaming Asset Management as Solaire’s operator after the property posted a mediocre financial performance in its initial six months, even though most observers had heralded the first destination casino to open at Manila’s Entertainment City as a game- changer for the Philippines. Appointed Solaire’s president and COO and given a seat on the board of PSX-listed parent Bloomberry Resorts, Mr Arasi was charged with improving gaming revenue and profitability as well as overseeing a US$500 million expansion, the first phase of which opened at the end of 2014. Having managed the completion and opening of Las Vegas Sands’ hugely profitable Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, he seemed like the right man for the job. So far, so good. Solaire’s new Sky Tower opened in November and again upped the ante for the Manila market. On the financial side, in the third quarter, gross gaming revenue grew 58% year on year, net revenue increased 42%, EBITDA tripled and Bloomberry’s earnings per share rose nearly sixfold while expenses were essentially flat. Entertainment City has since welcomed its second megaresort, Melco Crown Entertainment’s City of Dreams Manila. It was against this backdrop that Inside Asian Gaming sat down recently with Mr Arasi in one of Solaire’s super-luxury Bayfront Villas to talk about Solaire and Entertainment City and their rapidly evolving place in the Asian—and global—gaming landscape. Insights