GGRAsia – GEN Sing 2Q EBITDA, revenue likely up q-o-q: analysts

GEN Sing 2Q EBITDA, revenue likely up q-o-q: analysts

Jul 27, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Singapore, Top of the deck

Genting Singapore Plc, operator of the Resorts World Sentosa casino resort (pictured) in Singapore, is likely to report second quarter earnings – before certain fixed expenses – up sequentially by 20 percent, said a note from Maybank IB Research.

A Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd team led by Praveen Choudhary in Hong Kong, said it expected Genting Singapore’s second quarter revenue – another measure of performance – to rise 14 percent quarter-on-quarter to SGD727 million (US$530.8 million), a decline of 3 percent judged year-on-year.

Samuel Yin Shao Yang of Maybank said in his note previewing Genting Singapore’s second quarter numbers: “Assuming a VIP win rate of 2.85 percent, we expect a 2Q15 earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of SGD275 million, up 20 percent quarter-on-quarter.”

The bank said it saw “a few positives” for Genting Singapore based on the results for its Singapore casino rival Marina Bay Sands, the latter developed and operated by Las Vegas Sands Corp. The U.S.-based firm reported its Singapore market numbers in the group’s second quarter results on Wednesday.

Marina Bay Sands’s adjusted property EBITDA was US$363.3 million in the quarter ending June 30. On a constant-currency basis, that was down 6.4 percent from the prior-year quarter, the company said.

“We note a few positives for Genting Singapore from Marina Bay Sands’s results: (i) Marina Bay Sands’s VIP volume was down only 6 percent quarter-on-quarter (Macau: -12 percent quarter-on-quarter); (ii) its rebate rate was stable quarter-on-quarter at 1.34 percent of VIP volume; (iii) its bad debts fell to USS20 million, their lowest since 2Q11; and (iv) its mass-market GGR was still flat quarter-on-quarter,” said Maybank’s Mr Yin, referring to Las Vegas Sands’ Singapore operations.

He said the bank expected Genting Singapore’s VIP volume to be flat quarter-on-quarter at SGD12 billion to SGD13 billion, and its rebate rate to be flat quarter-on-quarter at 1.4 percent to 1.5 percent of VIP volume.

But Mr Yin added: “That said, Genting Singapore did warn us that its 2Q15 bad debts could remain high at SGD70 million to SGD80 million.”