Bloomberry Resorts, owner of Manila’s Solaire Resort & Casino, plans to join the resort casino party in South Korea.
The PSE-listed operator (BLOOM), controlled by Philippine ports tycoon Enrique Razon, told Reuters it has agreed to purchase 12.2 hectares of land in the Incheon Free Economic Zone, where both Paradise Group, the leading operator in Korea’s foreigners-only casino market, and US casino giant Caesars Entertainment plan to spend roughly a combined $1.5 billion with partners on competing resorts targeting the country’s booming Chinese market.
The zone, which surrounds the country’s main international airport and is about 30 kilometers west of Seoul, was created by the government in part to leverage large-scale tourism investment to diversify the country’s export-driven economy.
The government announced earlier this year that it intends to license two more resort projects with gaming in the zone.
Bloomberry isn’t planning to seek partners on its development, which could be completed within five years, Reuters said. The company declined to provide details beyond that.
“We will prepare the plan, we have to comply [first] with Korean regulatory requirements,” corporate Secretary Silverio Benny Tan told the news agency.
