GGRAsia – GEN HK slims annual loss but Manila attack hurt numbers

GEN HK slims annual loss but Manila attack hurt numbers

Mar 30, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Casino cruise ship operator and Asian casino investor Genting Hong Kong Ltd narrowed sharply in 2017 its annual loss. Such loss was approximately US$242.3 million, compared to US$502.3 million in 2016.

The improvement – which had been flagged in a February filing – was partly due to a “one-off gain of US$205 million” which the firm had earlier said related to sale of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd shares and sale of shares in The Star Entertainment Group Ltd, an Australian casino operator. Another factor was “the absence of an impairment on Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ shares of US$305 million” as had occurred in 2016, the firm noted in its latest filing.

The group did however see a dramatic fall in its share of profit from joint ventures and associates, to US$1.3 million in the 12 months to December 31, compared to US$32.4 million a year earlier.

The decrease was “mainly due” to a lower contribution from Travellers International Hotel Group Inc, which operates the Resorts World Manila casino complex in the Philippines.

That venue had been “affected by closure of the gaming area and portions of the non-gaming segment for most of June 2017 following the incident on 2 June,” said Genting Hong Kong. It was referring to a lone-gunman attack, fire and subsequent deaths that occurred at the property on that date. Genting Hong Kong is an investor – alongside Philippine conglomerate Alliance Global Group Inc – in Travellers International.

Genting Hong Kong said in financial year 2017, the group had also incurred start-up losses in the Dream Cruises brand related to its new World Dream cruise ship (pictured) that arrived in Hong Kong and the repositioning of its Genting Dream vessel to Singapore in November 2017; and had had costs linked to the group’s Crystal Cruises brand moving into the river cruise market; and from the launch of its AirCruises segment.

The group did not give in its annual results a breakdown specifically on its gaming revenue. But it said revenue from cruise and cruise-related activities – which includes “revenue from food and beverage sales, shore excursion, entertainment and other onboard services” – increased 11.9 percent to just under US$1.02 billion in 2017, compared with US$908.1 million in 2016. Net Revenue in 2017 increased 14.0 percent to US$786.0 million from US$689.7 million in 2016. It said the improvement was due to an 33.7 percent increase in “capacity days”, which was “primarily due to the inclusion of a full year of operations” for its Genting Dream and Crystal Mozart cruise ships as well as the launch of its World Dream, Crystal Bach and Crystal Mahler vessels during 2017.

Revenue from shipyard operations and non-cruise activities from external customers increased 60.6 percent to US$174.4 million in 2017 compared with US$108.6 million in 2016 “primarily contributed by revenue from its shipyard activities and from sales of residential property units in mainland China”.