PhilWeb 2009 profit up by 89%

01/18/2010

PhilWeb Corp., the country’s first and largest listed online technology firm, announced that unaudited Net Income for 2009 totaled P552 million, an 89% increase vs 2008. The bulk of these profits came from core operations in gaming, which contributed a total of P523 million, 126% better than previous year.

Aside from the core gaming profit of P523 million, another P29 million was contributed from PhilWeb's equity investment in ISM Corporation. The company has a total investment of P633 million in ISM, which at the year—end closing price of ISM of P0.065 is worth over P3 billion or almost five times better than the investment cost. "Our unrealized gain of P2.4 billion from our investment in ISM is a real albeit hidden jewel in our balance sheet," said PhilWeb president Dennis O. Valdes.

The hefty rise in core gaming operating income came from all three of PhilWeb's gaming areas. The company now has a total of 171 Pagcor e—Games cafés (PEGS), as a total of 50 were opened in 2009. Other products, namely Basketball Jackpot, Premyo Sa Resibo and the newly launched Bid Wars mobile game, also contributed to revenue growth. Total company revenue for 2009 is P820 million, an 82% increase vs 2008.

We had an excellent 2009 but are even more excited about our prospects in 2010,” said Valdes. “PhilWeb and ISM's recent acquisition of Acentic GmbH, which provides in—room guest entertainment services to the hospitality industry, will provide us a platform for international expansion. PhilWeb's role in this expansion will be to look at introducing gaming into the Acentic network of over 200,000 rooms, and partner with ISM in growing Acentic's reach into Asia."

Valdes continued that "Pagcor has also just granted our subsidiary, PhilWeb Homeplay, Inc., the ability to operate e—Games Online, which would allow Filipinos nationwide the ability to access Pagcor's suite of casino games via the website www.egamesonline.com.ph. We have every reason to believe that e—Games Online will match the performance of our PEGS network within a year. With the combination of Acentic and PhilWeb Homeplay, we fully expect our 2010 bottom line to exceed a billion pesos."

PhilWeb is the dominant player in the local internet gaming sector. As a technology enabler of Pagcor, it operates the Pagcor e—Games café system, and Internet Sports Betting Stations (ISBS). PhilWeb is also the driving force behind the popular Premyo Sa Resibo program of the BIR.