China Banking Corp. has received several offers for the site of the long-stalled Emerald Bay Hotel and Casino project in Cebu, but the lender is under no pressure to proceed with a sale as bids have yet to meet its valuation expectations, according to a senior executive quoted by local media outlet GMA News.
The comments come as the project’s casino ambitions were formally brought to an end following the revocation of its provisional gaming license by the Philippine gaming regulator.
Chinabank chairman Hans Sy said the bank, a key creditor to PH Resorts Group, believes the property’s value will improve over time and is prepared to wait for the right offer. “There are offers. We’ll negotiate. When we get a price that we find is good, then we sell,” Sy said in a recent interview, adding that the bank sees no need to rush given its view that the asset’s value will rise.
China Banking Corp. is a major lender to PH Resorts Group, having provided substantial loan facilities starting in 2018 to support the development of the Emerald Bay integrated resort project on Mactan Island in Cebu.
The property was transferred to Chinabank in 2023 as part of a debt restructuring agreement after PH Resorts, through its subsidiary Lapulapu Leisure Inc., moved to settle a PHP3.1 billion loan. Under that agreement, PH Resorts leased back the land and retained an option to repurchase the property, but that option expired in March 2025 and was not renewed by the bank.
Chinabank said in May last year that it would put up the property for sale after giving PH Resorts more than a year to exercise its buyback option. Despite interest from multiple parties, the lender has indicated it will only proceed with a transaction if pricing expectations are met.
The future of the Emerald Bay project was further clouded in December 2025, when the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) approved the revocation of the provisional casino license held by PHR subsidiaries Lapulapu Leisure Inc. and Lapulapu Land Corp.
In a stock filing, PH Resorts disclosed it received formal notice on December 17th, 2025, that the PAGCOR board had cancelled the provisional license for the Emerald Bay integrated resort and casino project in Lapu-Lapu City, effectively ending the group’s bid to operate a casino in Cebu. The company subsequently scrapped related partnership talks.
PH Resorts said the license cancellation was ‘not expected to have a material impact’ on its current financial position, as the project never commenced commercial operations. However, the group remains under financial strain.
In its latest quarterly filing, PH Resorts reported a net loss of PHP107.74 million ($1.89 million) in the third quarter of 2025, reversing net income of PHP101.34 million ($1.78 million) registered a year earlier.
During the period, the company’s revenues fell 47.6 percent year-on-year to PHP4.73 million ($83,000), while sales declined to PHP2.71 million ($47,500), driven mainly by weaker room and food-and-beverage income at its Donatela Resort in Bohol, its only operating property.
The Emerald Bay project was originally planned to include a five-star hotel with about 838 rooms and 7,585 square meters of gaming space, with a targeted soft opening in March 2022.
Construction stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic amid labor shortages and supply chain disruptions, and several prospective investors – including AppleOne Properties Inc., Bloomberry Resorts Inc., and Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment Inc. – have since exited discussions.
