PhilWeb posts 31% higher income in 2008

MANILA, Philippines - Publicly listed PhilWeb Corp. posted a net income of P292 million in 2008 or 31 percent more than the P223 million generated in the previous year.

Revenues totaled P450 million last year compared with P267 million in 2007, or a 68-percent growth. 

PhilWeb president Dennis Valdes attributed the strong performance of the company to the excellent results posted by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) e-Games (PEGS) Café network.

“We ended 2008 with 121 cafes, a growth of 45 new cafes for the year. Clearly, consumers are gradually noticing our cafes as their number increases, and the almost 20,000 that play with us daily are pleased with the gaming and entertainment products we offer,” he said.

Operating income rose to P207 million, a 71- percent growth compared with the previous year. Valdes pointed out that the growth in operating income was higher than the revenue growth rate, which means that the company did not hike expenses as fast as it did revenues.

He also noted that the company’s cash position is particularly noteworthy as total cash is now at P702 million. PhilWeb’s businesses generated P206 million in positive cash flow last year, which indicates the strength in the gaming market.

Valdes said they will use these funds to aggressively invest in new games of chance and other opportunities that come their way this year.

 “We believe this is a recession-proof business as our strongest month last year was December. During that month, despite all the holidays which normally dampen our volumes, our PEGS Café network broke all records. We set the record for total gross bets in one month, with a total of P5.5 billion. In one day alone, we set a record with P239 million in gross bets. The Casino Win was also record-setting, with a record of P167 million for December, the best ever for the business,” he said. 

PhilWeb also revealed that the financial results for the first quarter of 2009 showed even more dramatic increases than in 2008. 

The company also revealed that its core earnings increased 90 percent to $4.88 million from $2.57 million.

Valdes revealed that last year’s profits included gains booked from PhilWeb’s investments in ISM Communications Corp., which owns 77.7 percent of Eastern Telecommunications.

Also last year, PhilWeb aggressively expanded its games portfolio to include Basketball Jackpot, Premyo Sa Resibo and Txtingo Super Singko.

 “The past year has turned out to be a record year for PhilWeb, wherein we recorded our highest ever levels of revenue and net income, so we are quite optimistic that this trend will accelerate in 2009,” Valdes said.