MANILA, PHILIPPINES - After negotiations with Harrah's Entertainment fell through earlier, leisure and entertainment company Belle Corp. is looking at tapping a Macau partner to handle the casino-side of things for the planned US$1 billion entertainment complex along Manila Bay in the Philippines.
Leisure and Resorts World Corporation (LRWC), the firm tapped by Belle Corp. to scout for a new gaming partner in the project, said through majority owner and current Negros Occidental Congressman Alfredo Benitez, that his firm is currently in talks with a Macau-based casino operator and that a deal is expected to be completed before the year ends.
While Benitez refused to divulge the identity of the casino operator it is negotiating with, when the deal pushes through, the casino complex with 100 VIP suites is expected to open next year in the first phase of the integrated entertainment complex's development along with two 15-storey, 500 room hotels. The casino complex, estimated to be worth US$350 million will feature 1,500 slot machines and 250 gaming tables when it opens in the third quarter of 2011. Full development of the project will be in three phases over a five-year period.
It was reported last month that negotiations between Belle Corp. and Harrah's did not materialize after issues over financial matters were not resolved. Sources said that the financial matters referred to Harrah's reluctance to infuse equity into the project leading to the negotiation's collapse.
Together with mother firm, the SM Group, Belle Corp. is investing US$1 billion into the Manila Bay project that will see the rise of an entertainment complex on reclaimed land with the largest casino complex in the Philippines as well as hotels, a sports arena, a museum, and an oceanarium. Other features planned in the development include serviced apartments, restaurants, retail shops, theaters, business and meeting facilities, and indoor and outdoor theme parks.
Source: Philippine Star
Date Posted: November 30, 2010
