LRWC profit soars to159% in Q1 due to bingo business

Leisure & Resorts World Corp. (LRWC) reported a 158.83-percent jump in its first quarter net income this year to P17.29 million from only P6.68 million the previous year period, mainly due to the continued growth of its bingo operations.

In its financial report submitted to securities regulators, LRWC said net revenues grew 18.08 percent to P539.92 million from P457.25 million a year earlier. Operating income, however, fell to P17.2 million from P18.59 million as costs and operating expenses rose to P522.72 million, or an increase of 19.16 percent from P438.66 million a year earlier.

LRWC added its earnings per share amounted to P0.023, up 155.55 percent from P0.009.

LRWC subsidiary AB Leisure Exponent Inc. (ABLE) registered sales of P755.6 million, 16.1 percent higher than the year ago’s P650.7 million, mainly coming from its bingo operations consisting of traditional bingo, e-bingo, rapid bingo and pull tabs operations.

Electronic bingo total sales amounted to P113.1 million or an increase of 7.1 percent. This was due to the increase in the number of e-bingo machine and in the higher average sales generated per machine.

By the end of March this year, ABLE had a total of 881 e-bingo machines in 26 bingo parlors. It also had a total of 43 rapid bingo terminals in 28 bingo parlors.

LRWC is confident of sustaining its gains for the rest of the year with the continued expansion of its operations.

Expected to augment LRWC’s income this year is earnings from its 70 percent-owned subsidiary, First Cagayan Leisure and Resort World Corp., a provider of hosting services to offshore Internet gaming operators. In 2005, these operators collectively generated an estimated $10 billion in revenues worldwide.

"For the rest of 2006, LRWC will continue to expand its non-traditional bingo operations within existing sites and set up more hosting facilities to accommodate the growing number of online gaming locators in the country. We are optimistic in achieving our growth target for the year," LRWC president Alfredo Benitez said.

LRWC is the pioneer and market leader in professional bingo gaming. It launched electronic bingo in May 2002 and rapid bingo in August last year.

It has set aside as much as P100 million this year for the expansion of its bingo operations as part of efforts to further boost revenues and expand customer base.

The company intends to put up 30 to 50 new bingo kiosks, estimated to cost between P1.8 million to P2 million each. The new kiosks will be located in high pedestrian traffic locations with an average area of 100 square meters.

The company is also installing 350 electronic bingo machines and 15 rapid bingo terminals in existing outlets. It had a total of 874 of these machines by the end of 2005.

LRWC posted a net income of P64.1 million last year, or more than three times the P20.3 million reported in 2004. Gross revenues increased by 6.5 percent to P2.79 billion from P2.62 billion.