Caesars Entertainment is reported to be eyeing Manila as its next opportunity to expand in Asia.
The capital city’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport is one of the locations under consideration, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which said the possibility of an investment was discussed in a meeting between Caesars CEO Gary Loveman and Philippine President Benigno Aquino during a visit by the latter to the United States last month.
Steven Tight, who heads international development for the Las Vegas-based casino giant, confirmed the meeting, which he attended, in an interview with Bloomberg, which reports that the company is seeking a license for a project in the neighborhood of US$1 billion.
An airport location would put Caesars in direct competition with Resorts World Manila, which opened its casino hotel complex opposite the airport in 2009 and has since grown it into the country’s largest and most lucrative gaming operation.
It also would bring the number of Manila megaresorts, either existing or under development, to six, a possibility the government would be expected to welcome as it looks increasingly to resort-scale casinos to boost foreign tourism and investment and provide badly needed jobs.
The centerpiece of that policy is taking shape not far from the airport on a swath of reclaimed land on Manila Bay sponsored by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, the government agency that regulates the industry.
“There is no major international brand currently in Manila,” Mr Tight said. “There’s a chance to create something that will drive tourism, that will really put Manila on the regional tourist map.”
Plans for Entertainment City, as the reclamation area is known, include four destination resorts with casinos, roughly a US$6 billion investment in total, including one by Resorts World’s owners, PSX-listed Travellers International Hotel Group, which broke ground last month on its $1.1 billion Bayshore City Resorts World.
The first Entertainment City licensee, Solaire Resort & Casino, owned by PSX-listed Bloomberry Resorts, opened its $750 million first phase last year. The second, City of Dreams Manila, controlled by Macau casino giant Melco Crown Entertainment and priced at $1 billion, is slated to open its first phase at the end of this year or early in 2015. A Philippine subsidiary of Japanese gaming machine tycoon Kazuo Okada is expected to unveil the first phase of its $2 billion Manila Bay Resorts in 2016. Bayshore City is planning a 2018 opening.
Asia has begun to look promising for Caesars as it pursues expansion beyond the US domestic market, where it is struggling outside of Las Vegas to grow revenues sufficient to service its industry-leading $23 billion debt load. A joint venture led by the company scored a major coup earlier this year by winning preliminary approval from the government of South Korea to develop an $800 million resort casino in Incheon near the country’s main international airport.
Like the Philippines, South Korea is actively promoting resort investment as an economic development tool aimed at capitalizing on the boom in leisure travel out of China, which has emerged in recent years as the main profit engine for the country’s 16 foreigners-only casinos.
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