Brokerage Maybank Securities Inc has reduced by 16.9 percent its estimate for 2025 consolidated net revenue at Philippine casino group Bloomberry Resorts Corp, saying the firm is likely to be in a “challenged” business environment this year, “particularly” for its flagship Solaire Resort & Casino property (pictured) at Entertainment City in Manila.
Maybank thinks the group’s consolidated net revenue for this year will be just under PHP50.10 billion (US$857.1 million), versus its prior estimate of just below PHP60.27 billion.
Bloomberry’s net gaming revenues are forecast at nearly PHP40.43 billion this year, down 15.9 percent from Maybank’s previous estimate.
Factors likely to affect 2025 earnings included “the shrinking GGR [gross gaming revenue] contribution of casinos located in Entertainment City driven by the slump in fly-in VIP punters and fewer domestic Chinese players for mass tables”.
“Upside potential” for Bloomberry “will be contingent on the full-year operations of Solaire Resort North and management’s plan to launch its e-gaming platform by third-quarter 2025,” added Maybank analyst Raffy Mendoza.
Bloomberry’s second domestic property, Solaire Resort North, opened in Quezon City, on the outskirts of Manila, in May. VIP gaming operations at the new property started in early September.
Banking group Morgan Stanley mentioned in a note in early December that Bloomberry was planning to launch an “online gaming app in the third quarter of 2025, likely using a different brand than Solaire to target different clientele”.
In late December, Solaire Resort said in a post on social media platform LinkedIn that it was recruiting for its “online gaming team”.
Maybank’s Mr Mendoza stated: “During its [first nine months of 2024] briefing, management shared that it has partnered with Gaming Innovation Group Software Plc, a multi-national European business-to-business iGaming technology company, as Bloomberry intends to launch its online gaming platform to compete in the e-gaming space.’
He added: “By third-quarter 2025, management targets to have a competitive product that can rival the existing players in the online gaming space.”
But Maybank clarified: “We have yet to include this development in our forecasts”.
In its Wednesday update, Maybank downgraded Bloomberry’s stock to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’. Constraining factors in the outlook for Bloomberry included “gradual ramp-up and costs attached to Solaire Resort North; and increased competition from additional supply” of land-based and e-gaming in the Philippine market.
In November, Manila-listed Bloomberry reported a consolidated net loss of under PHP470.2 million for the three months to September 30, compared with a PHP1.95-billion profit a year earlier. The company said at the time that the third-quarter net loss was a result of lower earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), “significantly higher depreciation and amortisation, and interest expense associated with Solaire North”.
In late December, Philippines-listed Bloomberry appointed Greg Hawkins as acting chief operating officer of Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels Inc, the group’s operating unit. He was appointed to the role following the retirement of Thomas Arasi.
Mr Arasi’s retirement as president and COO of the parent company was announced suddenly in mid-December. Bloomberry said at the time that the executive was leaving for “personal reasons”.
