Casino group Genting Malaysia Bhd says it is “working towards” the completion “in the third quarter of 2021” of its Genting SkyWorlds outdoor theme park at its flagship Resorts World Genting property.
In February, the firm’s management had said it was targeting the second quarter this year for the launch of the theme park (pictured in an artist’s rendering), which is located in the grounds of its gaming resort outside the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
In late April, it had been reported that staff recruitment for the facility had started.
But the company said in statement accompanying its first-quarter earnings filed with Bursa Malaysia on Tuesday that the imposition of a third movement control order in the nation, as a Covid-19 countermeasure, “will continue to adversely impact the group’s business following the temporary closure of Resorts World Genting’s casino operations from 24 May 2021.”
It added: “While the group continues to work towards the completion of the Genting SkyWorlds outdoor theme park in the third quarter of 2021, the opening date of the park is dependent on developments surrounding the Covid-19 situation and its impact to the leisure and hospitality sector in the country.”
Genting Malaysia has stated it has invested “over US$800 million” in Genting SkyWorlds,
The theme park spans 26 acres (10.52 hectares) and is said to be able to accommodate up to 20,000 tourists at one time in normal trading conditions.
A number of investment analysts has suggested the launch of the park could help expand the gaming resort’s overall earnings by bringing in new customers.
Samuel Yin Shao Yang, an analyst at Maybank Investment Bank Bhd, said in a Wednesday note on Genting Malaysia’s first quarter, that the institution forecast the casino firm’s 2022 earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) could grow by 132 percent, as “Genting SkyWorlds theme park ramps up”.
Genting Malaysia had said in its first-quarter earnings press release, that the 76 percent year-on-year decline in revenue in its Malaysian leisure and hospitality business – including gaming – had been “predominantly due to the suspension of the group’s resort operations from 22 January 2021 until mid-February 2021 in compliance with the government’s implementation of a second movement control order, and the subsequent reopening of the properties with reduced capacity.
