GGRAsia – GEN Singapore yen bonds for ‘Japan capital’

GEN Singapore yen bonds for ‘Japan capital’

Oct 02, 2017 Newsdesk Japan, Latest News, Top of the deck

Singapore casino operator Genting Singapore Plc announced on Monday that it had applied that day to offer Japanese-yen denominated bonds in Japan “for working capital and general corporate purposes in Japan”.

On September 20, Genting Singapore – a unit of conglomerate Genting Bhd, founded by Malaysia’s entrepreneurial dynasty the Lim family – announced it had established a branch office in the Japanese capital, Tokyo.

The firm has previously expressed interest in investing in a casino resort in Japan once all related legislation is in place there.

The filing to the Singapore Exchange did not state the aggregate amount of bonds to be offered, or the terms, but said they would be unsecured and unsubordinated, and that the company – which runs the Resorts World Sentosa casino resort in Singapore – had been assigned an ‘A’ rating by Rating and Investment Information Inc (R&I), a Japanese institution.

“The bonds are expected to be assigned an issue rating of ‘A’ by R&I,” stated Monday’s filing.

“The proceeds of the bonds will be utilised by the Japan branch as necessary from time to time for working capital and general corporate purposes in Japan,” added the document.

It said the company had filed a securities registration statement with the director-general of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau in Japan for the purpose of issuing the bonds.

“An announcement of the definitive terms of the bonds will be made by the company following pricing of the issuance and subject to the Kanto Local Finance Bureau’s approval and/or acceptance of the securities registration statement,” added the filing.

Japan’s Kanto region includes the Greater Tokyo area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa.

Last week ratings house Fitch Ratings Inc said a piece of Japanese legislation called the IR [Integrated Resorts] Implementation Bill – likely now to be delayed until at least the spring of next year due to Japan’s snap election due in October – “would determine critical details including the number of casinos permitted and potential visitation restrictions for Japanese nationals”.

In 2014, Genting Singapore set up a string of subsidiaries in Japan. Those included Resorts World Japan Co Ltd, Resorts World Tokyo Co Ltd and Resorts World Osaka Co Ltd; firms to “be principally engaged in investment holding, leisure and related businesses”, the company said at the time.