CLAIMS TO FAME
- Controls long-time Philippines market leader Solaire
- Opened second Manila IR in Quezon City in May
It’s been a challenging year for the Philippines’ integrated resort operators. Coming off the highs of 2023, when many set new records for gaming revenues and profits, the past 11 months has seen those heady days subside with a notable decline in VIP visitation and the ongoing absence of Chinese tourism to the country impacting the bottom line.
Bloomberry Resorts Corp, operator of long-time Manila market leader Solaire Resort Entertainment City, hasn’t been immune. In August it noted a 32% year-on-year decline in rolling chip volume and a 21% fall in overall gross gaming revenues in the second quarter, ultimately resulting in net profit falling by almost two-thirds to US$22.8 million.
And yet one thing never seems to change: through all of the market’s ups and downs, the Solaire brand remains the one its rivals look up to, with a gaming floor voted for the second year running the best in Asia by its peers at the 2024 IAG Academy IR Awards.
There’s a reason Solaire has held the Entertainment City market share lead ever since its 2013 opening, and that reason is Bloomberry’s Chairman and CEO, Enrique Razon Jr. A billionaire many times over and one of the Philippines’ wealthiest men, Razon’s interests straddle global port management, domestic power and water supply and other utilities, philanthropic and sporting initiatives, and – somewhere among all of it – the Philippines’ classiest land-based casino precinct.
Yet he remains as ambitious as ever. In May, Bloomberry launched its second integrated resort in Manila by way of the towering Solaire Resort North in Quezon City, a bold move designed to tap into the wealthy array of locals based in the north of Manila.
Standing over 30 storeys tall, Solaire Resort North brings to the region 526 high-end hotel rooms plus 160 gaming tables and 1,600 electronic gaming machines, with Maybank Securities estimating in a recent note that the property would contribute 22% of Bloomberry’s GGR by 2025 even with full ramp not expected until at least 2026.
Acknowledging this timeline, Bloomberry recently revealed that it has refinanced US$1.25 billion in debt with a new maturity date of 2034, including a back-ended repayment schedule whereby most of the balance will fall due in the last five years of the facility.
Razon is also preparing to develop a third Solaire-branded integrated resort, this time to Manila’s south in Cavite. Although development is not slated to begin until Solaire Resort North is operating at full capacity, the company has revealed the Cavite IR will feature a golf resort as well as a residential component – both firsts for Bloomberry.
International expansion remains a longer-term goal: the company’s small Korean casino has failed to fire, and early probes into the once-promising Japan market went nowhere in the end, but don’t be surprised to see Razon make a move in Thailand should the right opportunity emerge. After all, he’s never been one to shy away from a new venture.
For the full list of 2024 Asian Gaming Power 50 winners, click here.
