Online crackdown no impact on property business: Megaworld

Megaworld Corp, one of the Philippines’ largest office lessors, says the online gaming crackdown will not have any impact on its home sales and office leasing business, Bloomberg reports.

According to Kevin Tan, chief strategy officer at Megaworld Corp, exposure to online casinos and residential sales to Chinese buyers are “small and manageable” and will stay that way over the next two years. 

“While we are the biggest lessor of office spaces in the Philippines, the (online casino) issue won’t affect both our office and residential businesses because our exposure remains small and manageable,” write Tan in a text message.

Shares in Megaworld tumbled after Pagcor announced a temporary stop on POGO licenses amid concerns of illegal workers in the sector and pressure from China. 

Around 12 percent of Megaworld’s total rental gross leasable area will be taken up by online casinos and will make up of around 8 percent of total leasing income and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization in 2020, according to Tan. 

“We are quite comfortable with this exposure and we don’t see ourselves increasing the percentage contribution of POGO to our business in the next two years,” Tan said.

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