ANDREW Tan-led Travellers International Hotel Group Inc., the operator of Resorts World Manila (RWM), is rushing to open the third phase of expansion of the integrated resort in front of Manila’s international airport, to augment the facilities that were damaged by June’s attack.
Kingson Sian, the company’s president and CEO, said foot traffic at RWM is slowly coming back, registering at around 25,000 visitors a day from its peak of about 28,000 visitors.
“We are rushing the phase three [of RWM expansion]. We’re all looking at it next year; first quarter next year. But there might be a chance that we can soft open even like late-December,” Sian said at the sidelines of Alliance Global Group Inc.’s (AGI) stockholders’ meeting on Tuesday.
In June a man began a fire at the second floor of RWM’s gambling area, which Sian said destroyed 100 tables and about 120 machines.
Travellers decided to close the entire floor and convert it instead to become part of the mall, Sian said.
The opening of part of the third phase of RWM expansion, meanwhile, will contain almost the same number of gambling tables and machines, he added.
RWM’s expansion also involves three floors of additional gambling area, which will be opened in phases, Sian said. Upon completion, RWM will have a total of 650 tables and 4,000 machines, he added.
Meanwhile, Tan’s investment holding company AGI, has launched a two-year share repurchase program of up to P5 billion.
“The board of Alliance Global has approved a share buyback of up to P5 billion over a 24-month period,” said Sian, who is also AGI’s president. “We are undertaking this corporate action because we believe that our shares are grossly undervalued. Our group has been consistently profitable, with attractive growth prospects, and enjoys strong brand equity and, therefore, views this exercise as a means to enhance shareholder value over time,” he said.
AGI’s income fell 11 percent during the first half of the year, as the company was hurt by the plunge in profit of its gambling unit that operates RWM.
AGI was last traded at P15.10, from P16.22 in September last year.
The company said its income plunged during the January-to- June period to P10.1 billion, from P11.34 billion; nearly an 11-percent decline. Revenues were also slightly down to P66.8 billion, from last year’s P67.07 billion.
The income of gambling unit Travellers also plunged to P372.97 million—just a fraction of the P1.79 billion that it made last year. Revenues were also down by 14 percent to P11.22 billion, from last year’s P13.7 billion.
With RWM’s casino nonoperational for 27 days in June, gross gaming revenues ended the first half of the year at P9.2 billion, down by 21percent, from P11.8 billion last year.
Gaming capacity at the end of June stood at 218 tables, 1,407 slot machines and 110 electronic table games. Overall property visitation reached an average of 26,585 daily visitors.