Japanese conglomerate Universal Entertainment Corp says that due to factors including business performance at its Okada Manila casino resort “progressing well above the forecast”, it is revising upward by 50.0 percent, the parent group’s net profit estimate for the year to December 31.

It now thinks such group profit will be JPY30.0 billion (US$200.6 million), versus its prior forecast of JPY20.0 billion.

Last week, Universal Entertainment said that Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc, its unit running the Okada Manila complex in the Philippine capital, had generated third-quarter casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) up 9.4 percent quarter-on-quarter. Adjusted segmental earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation for the property had increased by just under 16.0 percent judged sequentially.

In its latest update, Universal Entertainment stated: “Our [Manila] integrated resort business is progressing well above the forecast with strong growth in sales and profits resulting from a great increase in the number of visitors due to summer vacation … and the expansion of domestic gaming demand in the Philippines, and so forth.”

Universal Entertainment – which also makes pachinko and pachislot machines for the Japanese consumer entertainment market – adjudges that full-year net sales will be up by a more modest 3.6 percent relative to its prior forecast, to JPY186.5 billion. It thinks operating profit will be 19.1 percent higher than previously expected, at JPY28.0 billion.

It stated: “For the amusement equipment business, our sales plan for the current fiscal year remains solid, and… our major new titles are… expected to be launched in the market in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year.”

Though Universal Entertainment said before its fresh revision it had been cautious on its estimates for full-year 2023, “taking into consideration factors such as recent fluctuations in foreign exchange rates”.

This had been despite the fact that group-wide ordinary profit of JPY28.4 billion in the first half of the current fiscal year had already exceeded the forecast ordinary profit of JPY25.7 billion relating to the full-year consolidated business results.