An investment bank expects 2024 revenue at Genting Malaysia Bhd, the operator of Resorts World Genting (pictured in a file photo), Malaysia’s only casino resort, to rise by only 1.7 percent year-on-year. That is due to the closure – possibly for at least nine months – of two mass-market gaming floors at the Genting Highlands complex.
Maybank Investment Bank Bhd now expects full-year revenue at Genting Malaysia to be MYR10.36 billion (US$2.20 billion), compared to 2023’s just under MYR10.19 billion.
The casino company also has gaming business in the United States, the Bahamas, the United Kingdom and Egypt, but gets the bulk of its revenue from the Malaysia operation.
Maybank analyst Samuel Yin Shao Yang referred in a Monday note, to the shuttering from February 28, of two mass-market casino areas at Resorts World Genting, located in an upland area outside the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
He stated: “Assuming that the Circus Palace and Hollywood mass gaming floors will reopen nine months from 28 February 2024 and 50 percent of their mass market GGR [gross gaming revenue] migrates to the SkyCasino [facility on site], we lower our full-year Resorts World Genting mass market GGR forecasts by 19 percent.”
Maybank’s Mr Yin added: “Net impact of the above is to cut full-year 2024 earnings by 15 percent.” The bank left its 2025 and 2026 forecasts unchanged.
The analyst said, following a site visit on March 14: “We were positively surprised on how crowded SkyCasino was considering it was a weekday morning.’
He added: “The obvious explanation is that gamblers who used to patronise the Circus Palace and Hollywood mass gaming floors were patronising Sky Casino.”
Mr Yin stated that while Genting Malaysia had not been able to give guidance on when the mass gaming space now being revamped would reopen, the bank thought that would be “by year-end to capitalise on the year-end holidays”.
Maybank observed that “VIP gaming floors” located in the same gaming area as the Circus Palace and Hollywood mass gaming floors at the Resorts World Genting, were “still open”.
The institution stated that it maintained 2025 and 2026 GGR forecasts for Resorts World Genting at 104 percent and 106 percent respectively of 2019 – i.e., pre-pandemic – levels.
“History has shown us that Resorts World Genting GGR grows after gaming floors are expanded or renovated,” added Mr Yin.
