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AMID rising inflation, lottery sales in the Visayas and Mindanao
surged in the first quarter, according to the exclusive online
systems provider of state-run Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office
(PCSO) in those areas.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock
Exchange, Pacific Online Systems Corp. said sales jumped 50 percent,
allowing the company to register a P45-million profit, or nearly
double the P27.2 million in the same three-month period last year.
In March alone, PCSO registered almost P600
million in sales, 10 percent of which Pacific Online would book as
its own, as the jackpot that time reached almost P250 million,
enticing more people to bet.
Willy Ocier, Pacific Online president and
chairman, said that management expects this trend to continue
throughout this year.
“Without taking into account the additional
revenues expected from the roll out of additional terminals, we are
confident of reaching P200 million by year-end, based on the
tracking of first quarter results,” he said.
With the improvement in earnings, the company
declared a cash dividend of P0.25 per share to all shareholders of
record as of May 23, 2008 to be released on June 19. The declared
dividend amounts to P49.8 million.
“Considering that the major capital
expenditure budget for new terminals has been provisioned, we intend
to share the fruits of management’s hard work with our
stakeholders. We expect to be in a position to declare similar
amounts of dividends by year-end and adopt a similar policy for the
ensuing years,” Ocier said.
The company said it aims to maintain its sales
growth of 20 percent this year as it plans to roll out 350 more
betting terminals. The firm also said its newly acquired Lucky
Circle Corp. is generating good revenues, with the 56 outlets in
malls nationwide expected to grow to 100 by year-end.
On May 17, Pacific Online will also launch the
Power Lotto, a new numbers game that targets the A and B markets
since tickets will cost P50 each. The new numbers game will have at
least P50 million as its base jackpot in its weekly draw. Ocier said
the odds of winning in the new game is slimmer at 1 to 24 million
compared with the 6/49 Lotto, which has a 1 to 13 million chance of
winning.
-- Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
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