Belle Corp. net income rockets 74% to P3B

Casino operator Belle Corp. reported consolidated net in­come of P3.1 billion for 2016, which was 74 percent higher from the previous year.

Excluding extraordinary capital gain of P352 million realized in 2016 from the sale of 26 million shares of SM Prime Holdings Inc., Belle’s recurring net income hit P2.1 billion higher by P737 million from 2015.

Due to the good prof­it turnout, Belle declared a regular cash dividend of 9.5 centavos per share to share­holders, for a total dividend payment of P1 billion payable on March 30 to shareholders of record as of March 14.

Belle’s gaming income share from City of Dreams through its 78.7 per­cent-owned subsidiary, Pre­mium Leisure Corp (PLC), improved from P756 million in 2015 to P1.6 billion in 2016. This growth performance was attributed to ramp-up in gaming operations.

PLC has sharing agree­ment with Melco Crown En­tertainment Limited (MCE) on gaming revenues at City of Dreams.

Belle’s registered total real estate-related revenues increased by P90 million from P2.69 billion in 2015 to P2.78 billion in 2016, mainly derived from land and build­ing leases comprising City of Dreams Manila to MCE, and the balance of P586 million coming from sales of real es­tate products and property management activities at its Tagaytay Highlands and Mid­lands residential and leisure complexes.

Belle’s principal assets include land and buildings located at the the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) Entertain­ment City in Paranaque City, which are being leased on a long-term basis to MCE.

This property is the site of the City of Dreams Manila gaming and resort operations, which encompasses 6.2 hect­ares of land and more than 30 hectares in building gross floor area.

Belle also realizes a share in earnings from City of Dreams’ gaming opera­tions through its 78.7 per­cent-owned subsidiary.

City of Dreams Manila includes approximately two hectares of gaming space, more than 900 hotel rooms operated under three hotel brands (namely Crown, Hyatt and Nobu), the DreamPlay indoor family amusement park, and approximately two hectares of restaurant and re­tail space.

Belle also owns signif­icant real estate assets in and around Tagaytay City, a temperate mountain resort about 90 minutes south of Manila overlooking scenic Taal Lake and Mount Makil­ing. These assets consist of premium residential prop­erties for sale and approxi­mately 800 hectares of land held for future development, which are near two exclusive world-class golf clubs and one country club built by the company. RIZA LOZADA