Belle Corp. of retail tycoon Henry Sy Sr. reported Friday a consolidated net income of P1.96 billion in the first six months of 2018, up 11 percent from P1.77 billion year-on-year, on strong revenue contribution from the gaming and real estate businesses.
Excluding capital gains from sales of non-core investments and extraordinary items, Belle’s recurring net income reached P2.08 billion for the current period, up 26 percent from P1.66 billion a year ago.
Belle said in a disclosure to the stock exchange first-half revenues rose 10 percent to P4.5 billion from P4.1 billion a year ago mainly due to higher revenues from gaming unit Premium Leisure Corp.
Premium Leisure has an operating agreement with the Philippine affiliate of Melco Resorts and Entertainment Limited (Melco) that gives it a share of gaming revenues from the City of Dreams Manila.
Premium Leisure received P1.73 billion in gaming revenues, up 18 percent from P1.46 billion recorded in 2017.
Revenue from real estate development climbed 11 percent in the first half of the year to P1.2 billion from P1.07 billion in 2017.
A significant portion of this real estate-related EBITDA was derived from Belle’s lease of the land and buildings comprising the City of Dreams Manila to Melco, with the balance coming from sales of real estate products and property management activities at the Tagaytay Highlands and Midlands residential and leisure complexes south of Metro Manila.
Belle is a developer of tourism and leisure destinations in the Philippines. Its principal asset is the City of Dreams Manila in the Pagcor Entertainment City by Manila Bay, which is being leased on a long-term basis to Melco.
The company is keen on expanding the City of Dreams Manila using its one-hectare property adjacent to the gaming complex.