Razon-controlled Bloomberry Resorts Corp. on Tuesday said it will purchase another island in South Korea and signed another agreement with a group of shareholders that owns T.H.E. Hotel Vegas and Casino.
The company said in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange that it has signed a real-estate sales agreement to purchase Silmi Island, a 21-hectare property that is within the Incheon Free Economic Zone.
No other details were given on the deal, which will be carried out by Solaire Korea Co. Ltd., the local unit of Bloomberry.
Silmi Island is adjacent to the 12.2-hectare Muui Island, which is also subject for acquisition of Bloomberry that was disclosed earlier.
The area is intended to be developed into a leisure and tourism complex with entertainment facilities and mixed-use developments.
Bloomberry’s South Korean unit also purchased up to 92 percent of Golden and Luxury Co. Ltd., the operator of one of the seven casinos in Jeju Island.
“We are excited at the prospect of Solaire setting up a base in South Korea and of introducing the Solaire brand of integrated resorts to the country. This is our first venture outside of the Philippines, and the possibilities for expansion in this country are promising,” Bloomberry Chairman Enrique Razon said.
Jeju Island is a popular vacation spot for South Koreans, Chinese and Japanese.
The island attracted 2.3 million foreign tourists last year, of which 1.8 million were from China. This year the number of Chinese visitors to Jeju is expected to swell to 5.6 million.
Bloomberry owns and operates the Solaire Resort and Casino, the first property to open in Entertainment City.
The company said it recorded a profit of P3.3 billion for the three quarters of the year ending September 2014, or a turnaround from the P868-million loss reported a year earlier.
Gross revenues, meanwhile, more than doubled to P22.44 billion from last year’s P9.88 billion.
The company said the strong earnings momentum in the third quarter has also allowed it to realize P811 million in retained earnings, from a deficit of P2.48 billion at the beginning of the year.
For the third quarter alone, Bloomberry reported gross revenues of P7.67 billion, 58 percent higher than the P4.87 billion last year, with profit growing more than sixfold year on year to P992 million from P165 million.
Gross gaming revenues and non-gaming revenues for the first nine months of 2014 hit P21.52 billion and P784 million, respectively.