Bloomberry Resorts buys back 40m shares

Bloomberry Resorts has bought back 40m shares to cover the number of shares granted to certain officers and employees under the Stock Incentive Plan (SIP).

The Philippines.- Casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corporation has acquired 40m shares from the open market as part of its Stock Incentive Plan.

According to a company disclosure, the purpose of the share buyback is to cover the number of shares granted to certain officers and employees under its Stock Incentive Plan (SIP).

Bloomberry increased the maximum number of shares for the share buyback program to 350m on August 2.

The casino operator had been operating on an invite-only policy at limited capacity since May. However, a week ago Manila’s city government extended general community quarantine (GCQ) until August 15 and casinos decided to close until August 20.

Bloomberry reported gross gambling revenue (GGR) of PHP5.67bn for Q2 at its Solaire venue, down 18 per cent when compared to the previous quarter.

EBITDA was PHP1.03bn (US$20.5m), down 31.2 per cent from the previous quarter as the Solaire Resort was closed for 44 days due to Covid-19 countermeasures. However, the casino operator saw an improvement from the negative figure reported a year earlier.

Bloomberry reported net revenue for the second quarter of PHP4.71bn, down 14.7 per cent when compared to the previous quarter. However, the figure was up 400 per cent year-on-year. Its net loss came in at PHP1.16bn, which represents an improvement from PHP4.70bn a year earlier.

Enrique Razon, Bloomberry’s chairman and chief executive, said: “Bloomberry generated respectable results during the quarter despite having virtually no gaming operations between April and mid-May.”