Billionaire Enrique K. Razon Jr.’s casino and resort firm Bloomberry Resorts Corporation (BRC) reported that Solaire North head Gregory Francis Hawkins has been appointed as acting chief operating officer (COO) of
its operating subsidiary Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels Inc. (BRHI).
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Bloomberry said Hawkins will assume the COO functions of Thomas Arasi, who has retired, in both Solaire Entertainment City and Solaire North effective Dec. 19, 2024.
Hawkins is a gaming industry veteran and was chief casino officer of Star Entertainment from January 2019 to May 2022 and managing director of Star Sydney from September 2014 to January 2019.
Prior to this, he was chief executive of Crown Resorts’ Melbourne casino and, before that, was president of Melco’s City of Dreams casino in Macau.
Arasi retired as BRC President and COO on Dec. 17, 2024. He also retired as a member of the Board of Directors of BRC and BRHI and from all positions in other subsidiaries.
BRC reported a 58 percent drop in net income for the first nine months of 2024 and a net loss for the third quarter partly due to Solaire North (SN). Net income in the first nine months of 2024 was P3.5 billion, down from P8.3 billion last year.
Excluding the impact of gains from the disposal of an asset and the liquidation of a subsidiary, net income would have decreased by 56 percent year-over-year in the first nine months of 2024.
Bloomberry recorded a net loss of P470.2 million during the quarter, compared to net income of P1.9 billion in the third quarter of 2023. The net loss resulted from significantly higher depreciation and amortization, and interest expense associated with SN.
“As we started to record higher depreciation costs and interest expenses related to the commencement of Solaire Resort North’s operations, we reported a net loss in the July to September quarter of 2024,” Razon said.
He noted that “the business environment remains challenging in Entertainment City as gaming volumes declined.”
“However, the gaming volumes generated by our Quezon City property more than offset this weakness resulting in a 22 percent year-over-year increase in our total Philippine gaming revenues for the quarter. After its first full quarter of operations, we believe that Solaire North’s ramp-up is still on pace,” Razon added.
In the first nine months of 2024, Bloomberry’s consolidated gross gaming revenue (GGR) was P45.5 billion, higher by two percent compared to the same period last year, while third quarter GGR was P16.3 billion, representing an increase of 22 percent from P13.3 billion from last year.
The increase was mainly due to GGR contributed by SN, which is in the early phases of its ramp-up.
Non-gaming revenue was P2.7 billion for the third quarter, representing an increase of 22 percent from P2.3 billion generated in the same quarter last year. In the first nine months of 2024, non-gaming revenue was P7.4 billion, higher by 15 percent year-over-year.