Araneta-led gaming firm PhilWeb Corp. reported that its losses ballooned to ₱599.2 million last year, 734-percent higher than the ₱71.7-million loss incurred in 2023, mainly due to one-time costs.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the gaming company said the loss is attributed largely to one-time accounting impairments on goodwill of non-performing assets and value-added tax (VAT) credits from the franchise tax implementation on its revenues from gaming-related services.
PhilWeb said its revenues dipped five percent to ₱774.6 million pesos in 2024 from ₱816.1 million in 2023.
“Had our revenues not been subject to the franchise tax and had we not taken the recommended goodwill impairments, PhilWeb would have had better operating cash flows versus 2023 and we would have been in net income territory,” said PhilWeb Chairman Gregorio Ma. Araneta III.
He added that, “The goodwill impairments allow us to remove non-performing assets from our books, and will provide us agility to better serve the gaming industry.”
After franchise tax payments of ₱38.7 million, PhilWeb continued to generate positive operating cash flows to sustain its business operations, with ₱51.5 million in earnings.
A total of 18 venues were added to the company’s eGames network in 2024, despite site closures from tighter responsible gaming ordinances from certain local government units (LGUs).
Competition from the expansion of large integrated resort (IR) casinos into the company’s gaming venue markets, as well as the proliferation of Philippine inland gaming operator (PIGO) service providers have also affected revenues.
Over the past year, PhilWeb has partnered with OKBet and OKSports to provide gaming and sports betting content to the eGames platforms. Other leading gaming content providers such as Jili and Evolution are also available.
PhilWeb continues to supply software content, eBingo machinery and services to a network of 150 licensed gaming venues. PhilWeb also owns and operates 50 electronic gaming and electronic bingo venues across the Philippines.