Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc., (TRLEI) the integrated resort operating under the name Okada Manila, continued to report a drop in both revenues and earnings but showed that quarterly gaps are becoming narrower.
TRLEI’s parent company Universal Entertainment Corporation disclosed in Japan that preliminary figures show earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) dropped 37.65 percent to P7.66 billion last year from P12.28 billion in 2023.
For the fourth quarter alone, EBITDA declined by a significantly lower rate of 10.23 percent to P2.1 billion from P2.34 billion in 2023.
Total revenues was 19.62 percent lower at P38.93 billion in 2024 from P48.437 billion in the previous year while dipping by only 1.72 percent to P10.18 billion last year from P10.36 billion in 2023.
Gross gaming revenues (GGR) amounted to P34.82 billion while other revenue reached P4.11 billion for the full year 2024 while fourth quarter GGR was P8.98 billion with other revenue of P1.2 billion.
Abacus Securities Corporation noted that, in the fourth quarter, Okada Manila posted the smallest year-on-year decline in GGR in the past five quarters at -4 percent.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, Okada Manila posted a nine percent growth in GGR to P8.98 billion (highest in four quarters) led by VIP which was up 28 percent quarter-on-quarter.
“Now luck accounted for the gain in Okada's GGR; fourth quarter VIP win rate was 4.1 percent vs. 2.8 percent in the third quarter. Excluding chance, VIP remained soft as rolling chip volume last quarter was the lowest since the second quarter of 2021 which was still deep in the pandemic,” said Abacus.
UEC earlier said it expects to end 2024 with a loss partly due to the weak VIP market hounding its Philippine integrated resort Okada Manila as well as other casinos operating in the country.
In a disclosure to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, UEC said that, based on the recent performance of its businesses, it has revised its full-year consolidated business results forecast for 2024 which was announced last Feb. 14, 2024.
The firm said it expects its net sales to reach JPY 126 billion, 37 percent down from its earlier forecast of JPY 200 billion and lower than the JPY 179 billion generated in 2023.
Because of this, the firm expects JPY 18.3 billion in attributable loss from the earlier expected JPY 19.6 billion attributable profit for 2024. The firm posted an attributable profit of JPY 28.44 billion in 2023.
“For the Integrated Resort Business, the uncertain situation caused by the possibility of a continuing decline in VIP customers across the entire casino market in the Philippines is expected to continue,” UEC said.