Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming April 2015 42 Solaire Operator Turns to Profit in 2014 Bloomberry Resorts Corp., the operator of Solaire Resorts & Casino in the Philippines, swung to a profit of 4.07 billion Philippine pesos (US$90.5 million) last year on the back of strong gaming revenues. The operator incurred a net loss of P1.31billion in 2013, having opened Solaire in March of that year. In a statement, the company said its revenues nearly doubled to P24.03 billion ($543 million) in 2014 from P12.29 billion in 2013. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) also jumped nearly tenfold to P10.08 billion from the previous year’s P1.11 billion. Gaming revenues constituted some 95% of total revenue; hotel, food and beverage comprised around 4%; and the remainder came from retail, interest income and others. The company attributes the shift in its bottom line to the improved performance of Solaire. “We are elated by the 2014 year-end results. Our initiatives to grow our market, to increase revenues and to curb operational excesses have enabled us to make a remarkable turnaround in just two years. Now, we will focus on even surpassing that,” said Enrique Razon Jr., Bloomberry’s chairman and chief executive officer. The firm’s gross gaming revenue and non-gaming revenue last year were P30.38 billion and P1.07 billion, respectively. Although gaming revenue rose 103% over 2013 and non-gaming was up 39%, the percentage growth is measured against a year when Solaire was only operational for nine and a half months, during which time it was ramping up from a standing start. Capital spending in 2014 reached P14.02 billion with the completion of the Sky Tower expansion in November. With Sky Tower’s opening, Bloomberry surpassed the $1 billion minimum investment requirement under its provisional gaming license. MelcoLot Close to Establishing Georgia Casino Project MelcoLot Ltd, a unit of Hong Kong-listed Melco International Development Ltd, said it is “at an advanced stage of establishing” a casino project in Tbilisi, the capital of the republic of Georgia in the Caucasus. “The casino will be strategically located in Tbilisi, the capital city, to attract visitors from the Black Sea area,” the company said in a stock exchange filing, relayed by GGRAsia . The company first announced in November its plans for a casino in Georgia, part of the former Soviet Union for 70 years before gaining independence in 1991. MelcoLot is likely to get a casino license in about two months, according to Georgia’s Deputy Minister of Economy Ketevan Bochorishvili, quoted by the government-backed news website Agenda.ge . According to the news site, the casino is to be located in the under- construction US$140 million Millennium Bilmore Hotel complex, with both the hotel and casino expected to open in January 2016. MelcoLot, a technology supplier to mainland China’s regulated lottery providers, is listed on Hong Kong’s secondary equities market, the Growth Enterprise Market referred to as GEM. Mr Ho is also making bets on casino projects in Spain and Russia. A wholly owned subsidiary of MelcoLot holds a stake in a firm bidding for a casino license at BCN World in Barcelona, Spain. Through another Hong Kong-listed vehicle, Summit Ascent Holdings, Mr Ho is pursuing a venture on the outskirts of Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East, in the Primorye gambling zone— one of four gambling zones established in far-flung regions of Russia following the government’s move to exile casinos from the country’s major cities in 2010. Mr Ho’s Primorye casino, which sits significantly closer to residents of northern China than his Macau resort, is expected to open in May. Philippines’ DOJ Denies Okada Probe is Over According to a 23rd March report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer , the country’s Department of Justice denied that the National Bureau of Investigation has terminated its probe into the US$5 million bribery allegation against Japanese gaming tycoon Kazuo Okada in connection with his $2 billion integrated resort project in Manila’s Entertainment City district. Mr Okada’s Universal Entertainment Corporation issued a statement from Tokyo earlier last month stating “all inspections or investigations by government-related bodies of the Company group REGIONAL BRIEFS Kazuo Okada Lawrence Ho