Japanese pachinko, slot and arcade games manufacturer Universal Entertainment Corporation has reportedly released its first-quarter financial results showing that its net income had swelled by over 260% year-on-year to approximately $64.75 million.

According to a Sunday report from Inside Asian Gaming, the encouraging result from the Tokyo-headquartered firm comes after it recorded a loss of about $40.36 million for the same three-month period in 2021 owing to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the related temporary shuttering of its giant Okada Manila property in the Philippines.

Runaway recovery:

Universal Entertainment Corporation reportedly disclosed that a large part of its first-quarter revival had been achieved via the pachinko and pachislot machine segment where net sales more than tripled year-on-year to top $125.79 million. The company purportedly also used an official filing (pdf) to explain that its associated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization increased by an impressive 530% to hit roughly $40.97 million as it premiered ‘many new titles’ from December and consequently saw unit sales swell by almost 197% to 37,739.

A statement from Universal Entertainment Corporation read…

“In addition, there was a big increase in the ordinary profit because of foreign exchange gains resulting from the yen’s decline versus the United States dollar, gains on the cancellation of leasehold contracts due to revisions to leases and a gain associated with a decrease in leased asset obligations. All of these gains are classified as non-operating income.”

Philippines performance:

Regarding its 993-room Okada Manila property in the Entertainment City district of Manila and Universal Entertainment Corporation reportedly divulged that it had experienced strong signs of recovery during the first three months of 2022 despite booking an operating loss of around $3.85 million. The source detailed that this 110-acre development run by the Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Incorporated subsidiary saw its net first-quarter sales improve by 26.2% year-on-year to slightly over $87.44 million while its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization grew by 68.8% to exceed $18.81 million.

Optimistic outlook:

Continuing the good news and Tokyo-listed Universal Entertainment Corporation reportedly moreover proclaimed that its Okada Manila sales had risen ‘as the utilization rate of the casino and hotel moved up along with the larger number of guests’ following the easing of a range of coronavirus-related capacity restrictions from the first day of March.

Read the statement from Universal Entertainment Corporation…

“Okada Manila continued to operate during the pandemic while complying with the pandemic restrictions of the Philippines government and the easing of these restrictions. Due to the decline in the number of coronavirus casinos, the Philippines government reduced the alert level in metropolitan Manila from two to one on March 1, 2022, and as a result the casino, hotel, restaurant, retail, entertainment venues and all other components of Okada Manila are now allowed to operate at 100% of capacity.”