GGRAsia – GEN Singapore posts US$29mln 1Q profit, up sequentially

GEN Singapore posts US$29mln 1Q profit, up sequentially

May 12, 2022 Newsdesk Latest News, Singapore, Top of the deck

Casino operator Genting Singapore Ltd reported a net profit of SGD40.4 million (US$28.9 million) for the first quarter of 2022, up 17.3 percent from the previous quarter. It represented a 16.9-percent increase in year-on-year terms, according to company data in a Thursday filing to the Singapore Exchange, providing highlights of first-quarter performance.

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.

The company’s market rival in the city-state’s casino duopoly is United States-based Las Vegas Sands Corp, and the latter’s Marina Bay Sands property.

Genting Singapore reported revenue of SGD314.5 million for the three months to March 31, up 13.2 percent from a year earlier. It was an increase of 20.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2021.

Gaming revenue for the first quarter this year rose by 42.2 percent sequentially, to nearly SGD234.5 million; and it was up 8.1 percent from the prior-year period.

Genting Singapore recorded adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of SGD124.8 million, 80.0 percent up compared to the final quarter of 2021, but showing a 2.5 percent contraction from a year ago. The sequential decline was “mainly due to the rise in utilities expenses and the expiry of Covid-19 related government support measures.”

The firm noted in prepared remarks that “with Singapore reopening its international borders to fully-vaccinated travellers from April 1, 2022″ and thanks to “further relaxation of Covid-19 related regulations”, it was “cautiously optimistic” regarding its recovery trajectory.

The company added: “While we are encouraged by the gradual increase in footfall to our integrated resort… we anticipate that the pace of recovery in leisure travel will be moderated by the limited flight schedules, high airfares and ongoing travel restrictions on visitors from certain countries.”

The company had previously stated it was starting this quarter – through to 2023 – a phased refurbishment that will encompass three of its hotels: Hard Rock Hotel Singapore; Hotel Michael; and Festive Hotel, and their in-aggregate 1,200 accommodation units.

Renovation work to transform Festive Hotel into a “business-leisure” and “work-vacation” hotel, and a facility upgrade at Resorts World Convention Centre, are due to start in the “second half of this year”, the firm said in its latest filing.

Construction work on its Minion Land themed attraction – an expansion to the existing, on-site Universal Studios Singapore theme park - and a revamp of Resorts World Sentosa’s Oceanarium, “will start in the second quarter” of this year, it noted.

These enhancements are part of a SGD4.5-billion spending commitment by Genting Singapore, made to the Singapore government and announced in April 2019. It marks the start of the so-called “2.0” expansion of Resorts World Sentosa, as part of an arrangement that sees Genting Singapore keep until 2030 its half of Singapore’s casino duopoly.

Earlier this month, the firm announced that Tan Hee Teck, since 2010 the president and chief operating officer of Genting Singapore, had been appointed company chief executive.