MANILA (Bloomberg): Alliance Global Group Inc, the investment company of Philippine billionaire Andrew Tan, is looking to expand its casino resort venture beyond Manila to tap into fast-growing areas outside of the national capital.
"We are actively looking at some of the key tourism hubs all over the Philippines as potential expansion sites,” the firm’s Chief Executive Officer Kevin Andrew Tan said during the company’s annual meeting on Thursday (June 15).
The firm is betting that the tourism sector will rebound along with a pick up in global travel, while the country may also benefit from China’s crackdown on Macau that’s left a cloud hanging over Asia’s preeminent gambling hub. The Philippines’ gaming sector is also undergoing a broader overhaul, with the government considering the sale of state-owned casinos.
Travellers International Hotel, Alliance’s gaming venture, returned to profitability in 2022 with net income of 1.1 billion pesos (US$19.6 million) as gross-gaming revenue hit a record and non-gaming earnings continued to recover. Alliance Global has earmarked about 4 billion pesos of this year’s 70-billion-peso planned capital expenditure for ongoing expansion of Travellers’ Newport World Resorts casino complex. Alliance Global last month bought out Genting Group, its casino-venture partner.
To sustain the strong growth trajectory, Travellers wants to increase the share of premium mass-market gamblers to half of gross-gaming revenue, Kevin Andrew Tan said. It will also expand VIP junket operations, which in 2022 posted revenue more than double pre-pandemic levels.
Shares of Alliance Global fell 1.5% in Manila trading, set for a sixth straight daily loss in the longest run of declines since September.
