GGRAsia – GEN Singapore 2022 liabilities up as biz rebounded: firm

GEN Singapore 2022 liabilities up as biz rebounded: firm

Feb 28, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Singapore, Top of the deck

Casino operator Genting Singapore Ltd says the “significant increases” in the group’s liabilities from 2021 to 2022 were “in line with the increase” in its full-year revenue. That was because “travel recovery gained momentum in the second half of 2022,” the firm said in a Monday filing in a reply to an enquiry from the Singapore Exchange.

Earlier this month, Genting Singapore posted annual net profit of SGD340.1 million (US$252.4 million) for full-year 2022, up 85.5 percent from the prior year. That was on revenue that rose 61.7 percent year-on-year, to SGD1.73 billion.

Genting Singapore is the operator of Resorts World Sentosa (pictured in a file photo), one of Singapore’s two casino resorts. The firm is a subsidiary of Malaysian conglomerate Genting Bhd.

According to the company’s annual results, Genting Singapore reported accrued operating liabilities amounting to SGD171.2 million in 2022, up 24.0 percent from the previous year.

In its reply to the exchange, Genting Singapore stated such increase related to “expenses incurred in the ordinary course of business, mainly made up of employee salaries and related costs, taxes and duties, and other direct operating expenses.”

Contract liabilities for full-year 2022 rose by 14.4 percent year-on-year, to SGD152.6 million, while “other payables” in the amount of SGD55.5 million were up 61.3 percent from 2021.

Genting Singapore stated that its contract liabilities were related to “customer deposits, deferred revenue, loyalty programme liabilities and outstanding chips liabilities”; while other payables were “mainly related to payables on goods and services tax and levy”.

Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd said in a memo that Genting Singapore’s “bad debt charge” had returned as a “function of strong VIP roll growth of 136 percent year-on-year to SGD16 billion in 2022”.

As of December 31, 2022, the casino firm had an allowance for impairment of trade receivables in the amount of SGD102.1 million, representing 63.6 percent of group-wide trade receivables. It also recognised an impairment charge of SGD29.7 million.

“With the recovery of Singapore’s international visitor arrivals in 2022, the group’s revenue rebounded, and trade receivables increased correspondingly,” stated Genting Singapore.