Philippines Manila Bay Casino City Gets Go Ahead

The president of the government-owned gaming company Pagcor has indicated that the mooted Manila Bay casino development is now cleared to go ahead, and a UK-based casino operator this week also signed agreements to go ahead with a casino in the Philippine resort of Puerto Princesa, but with some regulatory hurdles cleared, economic ones still remain.

Rafael Francisco, president of the government-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, said yesterday that the construction of the 150-hectare Philippine gaming city was now scheduled to start early next year. According to Francisco the local government of Paranaque recently gave its official endorsement for the project’s tourism ecozone status, the last in its long list of pre-construction requirements.

“We expect to begin construction of the project by first quarter of next year. The project will then take about five years to complete,” Francisco said. The government-run Pagcor is financing the project, with substantial licensing and infrastructure contributions expected from operators,  reports GCC.

The project, which sits on reclaimed land in Manila Bay, will consist of five to eight hotels, theme parks, casinos, shopping malls and other recreational establishments.

Pagcor is banking on the $15bn project called ‘Entertainment City’ to turn the Philippines into one of Asia’s leading gaming and tourism destinations in the next decade, while the local government of Paranaque expects to earn from the project about P500m in revenue every year.

“This project will result in about 400,000 jobs, including the multiplier effect it will have on contractors, cement producers, and other establishments to be built around the Entertainment City,” Francisco said

Pagcor has already granted a provisional licence to Japan’s Aruze Corp. Aruze, the maker of pinball, pachinko and other gambling machines, last month said it plans to open a 2000-room hotel and casino by early 2010 on a 30-hectare property.

Since then, however, Aruze has warned the Tokyo stock market of a sharp downturn [3] in sales of its core pachislot machines, and economic concerns may threaten the Manila project.

In July Australian gaming giant Crown confirmed it would not be investing in the Pagcor project [4] in Manila, the Philippines, citing the rising cost of credit in the current economic climate.

Speaking at the recent ACEs summit in Singapore, Wahid Chammas, a UK-based senior equity analyst at Janus noted the Pagcor project was confronting “an unfortunate cycle in terms of capital”, with operators already facing growing capital market scepticism over the viability of their Macau developments, Chammas added. “A lot of people who would be interested may not come to the dance.”

Pagcor has also granted a provisional gaming licence to Travellers International Hotel group, a joint venture of Philippine property developer Alliance Global and Star Cruises, the world’s third-biggest cruise ship operator.

However commentators at the ACEs summit indicated that they feared that Pagcor’s dual role as casino regulator and the operator of 13 casinos in the Philippines could also cause some uncertainty on the part of foreign operators, especially amongst the Nevada-based gaming giants.

Amazing HoldingsPortfolio info about amazing holdings PlcPortfolio info about Amazing Holdings PLC, the AIM-listed hotel and casino group with extensive land holdings on Taiwan’s Penghu island, yesterday said it has executed a letter of intent with Palawan Development Group (PDG) to open its first casino on the island of Palawan in the Philippines, but that the project was still subject to an assessment of its economic feasibility.

Amazing, in cooperation with the Palawan Development Group, said it had signed an agreement to purchase an existing hotel in Puerto Princesa to convert into their first hotel and casino. The letter of intent is contingent on due diligence and approval.

Palawan, with a population of approximately one million, is said by Amazing holdings to be one of the fastest growing eco-tourist destinations in Asia. The total cost for establishing the first hotel and casino on the island is expected to be about $6m, including acquisition of the hotel, renovations, installation of gaming equipment and start-up costs.

AMZ and PDG claim to have already obtained financing of about $2m for the acquisition of the hotel.

Michael Treanor, chief executive of AMZ said: “This move is in line with our strategy to seek investment opportunities in other emerging gaming markets in Asia in addition to our site in Taiwan. The Philippines is a well established, highly regulated gaming market and the island of Palawan represents a prime opportunity for AMZ.”

Technorati Tags: philippines, manila bay, entertainment city, philippines casino

Originally posted 2008-10-10 04:45:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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