Excluding extraordinary and non-recurring items, Belle Corporation's consolidated recurring net income of P680 million for the 2020 period was 75 percent lower than the comparable figure of P2.67 billion for the 2019 period.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said it realized consolidated revenues of P2.91 billion for the nine months ended September 30, 2020, down 50 percent compared to revenues of P5.77 billion for the same period last year.

“The decreases in revenues and profits resulted primarily from Covid-19 related developments,” Belle said.

It noted that, “The effects of the pandemic began 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.”

Belle’s primary growth driver, its share in the gaming revenues at City of Dreams Manila, declined by 86 percent, from P2.38 billion in the first nine months of 2019 to P325 million in the same period this year, as gaming operations were either suspended or substantially limited from mid-March through September 2020.

The Covid-19 pandemic also caused weak results at Pacific Online Systems Corporation, which leases online betting equipment to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office for their lottery and keno operations.

Pacific Online, which is 50.1 percent-owned by Belle’s subsidiary Premium Leisure Corp. (PLC), posted a 71 percent decrease in revenues, from P766 million for the first nine months of 2019 to P221 million for the same period in 2020.

Belle’s real estate operations recorded a 10 percent decrease in revenues to P2.37 billion in the first nine months of 2020 from P2.63 billion in the same period last year.

Of real estate revenues in 2020, P2.0 billion came from Belle’s lease of the land and buildings comprising City of Dreams Manila to Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corporation, which was unchanged from 2019.However, Belle’s real estate sales and property management activities at its Tagaytay Highlands complex, which were affected by the community quarantines during the entire second and third quarters of 2020 and the Taal Volcano eruption in January 2020, contributed revenues of P363million in 2020, which were 42 percent lower than the P624 million in 2019.