Bloomberg – Philippine billionaire Enrique Razon wants to use his Manila casino venture as a springboard to expand overseas, replicating the strategy that made his family’s port company one of Southeast Asia’s largest operators.
Razon, who parlayed a Manila port franchise his family obtained in 1988 into a company with operations in 18 other countries, is interested in markets with established rules for gaming licenses, such as Macau and parts of Latin America.
“We just have to build the brand,” Razon said in an interview in Manila yesterday. He expects Macau’s government will allow new entrants into the world’s largest gambling hub in 2020 as existing licenses start expiring.
Bloomberry Resorts Corp. (BLOOM), Razon’s first casino venture, started operating the $1.2 billion Solaire casino resort in March with one of four licenses issued in Manila to build a gaming and entertainment hub and compete with Macau and Singapore. Macau’s gaming revenue surged 14 percent to $38 billion last year driven by Chinese tourists, while Singapore drew $6 billion.
Bloomberry is the Razon family’s first foray into gaming since his father quit from a venture with Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho on Manila’s floating casino during the time of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICT), a company Razon started with his father in December 1987, won a franchise to operate the Manila International Container Terminal in 1988, beating six other competing groups in the Philippines’ first port privatization.
ICTSI, as it is locally known, is the country’s biggest operator. After making bids for foreign port companies, ICTSI now has ventures from India to Colombia and Argentina.
