Belle Corp.’s first-quarter filing points to firmer gaming activity at City of Dreams Manila, suggesting the pressure that dogged Entertainment City through much of 2025 may be starting to ease — a signal investors will be watching closely ahead of Bloomberry’s own quarterly report.
One of the earliest clues on how Metro Manila’s casino district began 2026 arrived not from a pure gaming operator, but from its landlord. Belle Corp., the property company tied to City of Dreams Manila, reported that its share in gaming revenue from the integrated resort rose 12% in the first quarter to ₱485.7 million, while lease income from the property held essentially steady at ₱587.6 million. For investors searching for signs that the Bay Area gaming market is finding firmer footing after a difficult 2025, that combination matters: the fixed real-estate income stayed intact, while the variable casino-linked piece improved.
The figures do not give a full property-level income statement for City of Dreams Manila, which is operated by Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines), but they do offer a clean directional message. Belle’s consolidated revenue climbed 9% to ₱1.42 billion in the quarter, while net income rose 13% to ₱524.4 million. More importantly for gaming watchers, Belle’s COD Manila-linked cash flows remained the center of gravity of the business: lease income plus gaming revenue share together contributed roughly ₱1.07 billion, or the clear majority of total revenue for the period. In other words, when Belle’s numbers move, they usually say something meaningful about what is happening inside City of Dreams Manila.
That is notable because City of Dreams Manila entered 2026 with something to prove. Belle’s full-year 2025 disclosures had already shown that its gaming revenue share from the resort fell 17% from the previous year, underscoring the rougher conditions that swept through the Philippine integrated-resort market as premium demand softened. A first-quarter rebound does not erase that weakness, but it does suggest that the worst of the downdraft may have passed — or at the very least that the business started the year on a better trajectory than it ended the last one.
The quality of the quarter may be just as important as the growth rate. Belle’s cost of gaming operations was almost unchanged at ₱34.8 million, up only 1% from a year earlier, even as gaming revenue share increased by double digits. Its “gaming and gaming-related activities” segment posted revenue of ₱633.4 million, up from ₱591.8 million, while segment costs and expenses fell to ₱214.5 million from ₱231.4 million. That pattern points to stronger operating leverage — the kind that tends to show up when volumes improve faster than cost inflation. It is not the signature of a breakneck boom, but it is often the signature of a property moving back toward healthier utilization.
For Manila’s Entertainment City, that distinction is important. The story across 2025 was less about a collapse in the mass market than about pressure in higher-end play, premium volumes, and overall competitive intensity. Bloomberry, which runs rival Solaire Resort Entertainment City, said when it reported full-year 2025 results that the market had been hit by“persistent industry-wide weakness in the VIP and premium mass segments.” It said gross gaming revenue at Solaire Entertainment City fell 23% for the year, with VIP GGR down 54% and property EBITDA down 59%. Against that backdrop, Belle’s first-quarter pickup at City of Dreams Manila stands out because it hints that one of Entertainment City’s major integrated resorts may have begun 2026 in better shape than the 2025 headlines implied.
That does not mean City of Dreams Manila is suddenly sprinting ahead. Lease income from the property was flat, which suggests the bigger shift is not in the contractual backbone of Belle’s income but in the casino floor’s contribution. And because Belle reports only its share of gaming revenue rather than City of Dreams Manila’s full gross gaming revenue, the filing cannot tell investors whether the quarter was driven by stronger volumes, better hold, a richer mix of players, or some combination of the three. Still, the directional signal is unmistakable: the gaming-linked earnings stream improved in the first quarter, and it improved enough to lift Belle’s overall profit despite only modest movement in several of its other operating lines.
There is also a broader strategic layer to the story. Melco spent much of the past year evaluating strategic alternatives for City of Dreams Manila before deciding in February 2026 to stop pursuing a sale, with Chairman Lawrence Ho saying the company remained confident the business would rebound. He pointed to favorable developments including visa-free travel for Chinese nationals, airport upgrades meant to support international tourism, and a more rational online-gaming market. Belle’s first-quarter filing does not prove that thesis on its own, but it does give Melco’s optimism a little more factual support than investors had a quarter ago.
That is where the Bloomberry angle comes in. As of late April, Bloomberry had not yet posted a first-quarter 2026 quarterly report on its reports page, leaving Belle’s filing as one of the first listed-company windows into how Manila’s casino market may have opened the year. If City of Dreams Manila is seeing steadier gaming momentum, investors may reasonably ask whether Solaire’s flagship Entertainment City property is also finding relief after a bruising 2025. The read-through is imperfect — Bloomberry has a different portfolio mix, including Solaire Resort North and its digital gaming initiatives — but Belle’s numbers do raise the possibility that the next set of Solaire figures could show a less hostile operating environment than the one described in Bloomberry’s 2025 commentary.
The most likely lesson is not that the Philippine casino market has turned euphoric, but that it may be normalizing. Belle’s quarter points to a Bay Area market where base property economics remain stable and gaming volumes are improving enough to restore some margin power. That is a more mature, more investable pattern than the sharp swings that defined parts of 2025. If Bloomberry’s first-quarter release ultimately echoes that message — particularly in its mass tables and electronic gaming machines — investors may begin to talk less about survival in Entertainment City and more about which operator is best positioned for the next upcycle.
For now, Belle’s filing offers a modest but meaningful conclusion: City of Dreams Manila looked healthier in the first quarter than it did across much of last year. In a market where sentiment has been dragged down by weak VIP turnover, new competition, and uneven tourist flows, even that may be enough to reset expectations. And in the absence of Bloomberry’s own quarterly numbers, City of Dreams Manila may have just delivered the first hint that Manila’s casino strip is entering 2026 on firmer ground.
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Disclaimer: This is for informational purposes and is not investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs.
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