Belle Corp., a company controlled by the SM Group, on Thursday said its net income in January to September grew 84 percent to P693.5 million from last year’s P376.2 million.
Revenues fell 21 percent to P2.28 billion from last year’s P2.9 billion.
For the quarter ending September, however, the company’s loss deepened to P351.28 million, a reversal of last year’s income of P72.23 million. For the period, it had a revenue loss of P248.97 million as against its revenues of P902.79 million a year ago.
“The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic began in early 2020 with declining tourist arrivals prior to the implementation of the community quarantines nationwide, and was compounded by the temporary suspension of gaming operations at City of Dreams Manila on March 16, 2020 in compliance with government initiatives to contain the virus,” the company said.
The share in the gaming revenues at City of Dreams Manila, from Belle’s subsidiary Premium Leisure Corp., tripled to P967.2 million from the previous year’s P324.8 million. The casino’s operations improved for the period although still with substantial limitations due to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, the company said.
Pacific Online Systems Corp., which leases online betting equipment to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office for their lottery and keno operations, also experienced improvements during 2021, while still operating under limitations.
Pacific Online, which is 50.1 percent-owned by Premium Leisure, posted a 37-percent increase in revenues to P302 million from P221.3 million last year.
Belle’s real estate operations recorded a 57-percent fall in revenues to P1.01 billion from P2.36 billion last year.
Of the real estate revenues this year, P469.5 million came from Belle’s lease of the land and buildings comprising the City of Dreams Manila to Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corp., which was 76 percent lower than last year’s P1.99 billion.
Belle’s real estate sales and property management activities at its Tagaytay Highlands complex contributed revenues of P549.1 million for the period, or 52 percent higher than last year’s P361.7 million.