MANILA, Philippines - Listed firm PhilWeb Corp. reported on Thursday its 2009 unaudited net income rose 89% to P552 million, owing to strong revenues from its gaming operations.

In a statement, PhilWeb said bulk of the profits came from core gaming operations, which contributed a total of P523 million, 126% higher than the previous year. The rest came from its equity investment in ISM Corp.

PhilWeb has a total investment of P633 million in ISM, which, at year-end closing price of P0.065, was worth over P3 billion or almost 5 times better than the investment cost.

"Our unrealized gain of P2.4 billion from our investment in ISM is a real albeit hidden jewel in our balance sheet," PhilWeb president Dennis Valdes said.

The hefty rise in PhilWeb's gaming income, meanwhile, was due to the strong performance of all its gaming units.

The company currently operates a total of 171 Pagcor e-Games (PEGS) cafes, of which 50 were opened in 2009.

Other products, namely Basketball Jackpot, Premyo Sa Resibo, and the newly launched Bid Wars mobile game also contributed to growth.

PhilWeb recorded revenues of P820 million, up 82% year-on-year.

"We had an excellent 2009 but are even more excited about our prospects in 2010," said Valdes.

Last month, PhilWeb and ISM acquired Acentic GmbH, a German in-room guest entertainment services firm to the hospitality industry, for P1.13 billion.

Valdes said this acquisition will provide the company with a platform for international expansion.

"PhilWeb's role in this expansion will be to look at introducing gaming into the Acentic network of over 200,000 rooms, and partner with ISM in growing Acentic's reach into Asia," he said.

Meantime, Valdes announced that Pagcor has granted its subsidiary PhilWeb Homeplay Inc. the right to operate e-Games Online, which would allow Filipinos nationwide to access Pagcor's suite of casino games via the website www.egamesonline.com.ph.

"We have every reason to believe that e-Games Online will match the performance of our PEGS network within a year. With the combination of Acentic and PhilWeb Homeplay, we fully expect our 2010 bottom line to exceed a billion pesos," Valdes said.