Lim Keong Hui has been named the deputy chief executive of casino and hospitality group Genting Bhd and its subsidiary in its home country, Genting Malaysia Bhd. In twin announcements to the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange, known as Bursa Malaysia, the companies said Mr Lim was previously an executive director of Genting and Genting Malaysia, who served both companies as chief information officer and holds shares in both organisations.
The announcements were issued on Monday and said the 34-year-old Malaysian would take up his new positions on Wednesday.
Mr Lim’s father is Lim Kok Thay, the chairman and chief executive of Genting and Genting Malaysia, and the major shareholder in both companies.
In further announcements to the stock exchange on Monday, Genting Malaysia said it had appointed Alwi Bin Jantan as its deputy chairman, replacing Mohammed Hanif Bin Omar, who is retiring at the age of 79.
The new deputy chairman, an 83-year-old Malaysian, was previously a non-executive director of Genting Malaysia and is a shareholder in the company. Genting Malaysia said he was due to take up his position on Wednesday.
The management changes come at a critical time for Genting Malaysia, one of Asia’s leading gaming organisations. The company operates the Southeast Asian country’s only casino resort, Resorts World Genting. It also operates casinos in the United States, the Bahamas and the United Kingdom.
In November, the Malaysian government announced it would impose a 10-percentage-point increase in its tax on gross gaming revenue derived from mass-market and VIP play at the property outside Kuala Lumpur. Analysts have suggested that the impact on the company’s profit may not be pronounced.
The company is also caught in a legal battle with Fox Entertainment Group LLC and some related companies, as well as The Walt Disney Co, for more than US$1 billion. Genting Malaysia is suing their former partners for backing out of a contract arising from a plan to build a theme park bearing the 21st Century Fox brand.
Lim Kok Thay, the company chairman and chief executive, told Singapore’s Business Times newspaper that the theme park would be – in the words of the newspaper, indirectly citing the entrepreneur – “ready” early next year.
In a December announcement, the company swung to a third-quarter loss, compared to a profit a year earlier. The loss was MYR1.49 billion (US$357.5 million) compared to a profit of nearly MYR193.8 million in the third quarter of 2017.
