THE PHILIPPINES’ most valuable company, SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), is planning to invest at least $300 million in an integrated casino and resort north of Manila, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
Premium Leisure, a unit of SM’s Belle Corp. unit, has applied for a license to build and operate a casino and resort in Clark, a former US military air base turned into a leisure and business hub, in Pampanga province, the sources said.
Shares in Belle sank minutes after the news of the expansion. They fell 7.26%, closing at a 10-week low and bucking the 0.31% gain in the broader stock market index, while SM’s share price ended 2.56% higher.
“Aside from the casino, there will be a convention center and a hotel,” one of the sources told Reuters.
Premium Leisure, which delisted from the stock exchange earlier this month, is the landlord of the $1 billion-plus City of Dreams casino-resort, operated by Nasdaq-listed Melco Resorts & Entertainment, in Manila’s much smaller version of the Las Vegas gaming strip.
Officials of SM, Belle, and Premium Leisure did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
SM, with a market value of $18.8 billion, has interests that range across shopping malls, banking, residential and office towers, retail, mining, and logistics.
SM’s expansion may boost the planned initial public offering (IPO) of another Clark casino operator, said Juan Paolo Colet, managing director at investment bank Chinabank Capital in Manila.
Hann Resorts, which operates a casino-resort with 147 gaming tables and 868 slot machines in Clark, is planning for IPO of up to P20 billion ($342.2 million) early next year, the chief of the gaming regulator said on Tuesday.
“Clark is emerging as a promising growth market for gaming and leisure. It could become the next major integrated resort hub,” Mr. Colet said.
The Philippine gambling sector, next only in size to Macau and Singapore in Asia, attracts high rollers from countries like China, Japan, and South Korea. It has enticed foreign and domestic firms to set up billion-dollar integrated casino-resorts, creating thousands of jobs. — Reuters
