Genting HK says various units filed for insolvency

Jul 21, 2022 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Casino cruise ship operator Genting Hong Kong Ltd said this week that the sale of a number of its assets, including some of its vessels, “are at varying stages of completion,” as it seeks to “maximise value and returns” for “the creditors of the company”.

Genting Hong Kong’s stock has been suspended from the Hong Kong bourse since January 18, and its affairs are currently in the hands of joint provisional liquidators.

In a Tuesday filing, the Hong Kong-listed firm said it was not currently operating any cruises and that the group’s liquidators “do not envision that the group will be in a position to resume such operations in the future.”

It stated: “In addition to the above and for the same reasons, various non-core subsidiaries of the group have also entered into insolvency proceedings in the relevant jurisdictions, including Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and [the] United States.”

It added: “The joint provisional liquidators anticipate that further subsidiaries of the group will enter into formal insolvency processes as the group continues with its operations-reduction exercise and the disposal of its assets.”

Joint provisional liquidators were appointed for Genting Hong Kong – which is also an investor in a casino resort in the Philippines – on January 20 after an application to a Bermuda court.

“The primary duty of the joint provisional liquidators is maximise value and returns of the creditors of the company, and as a result of recovery actions commenced by a number of the group’s creditors, the group’s business operations have been significantly curtailed,” said Genting Hong Kong.

It added: “Creditor recovery actions include certain of the group’s secured creditors taking enforcement actions over substantially all of the vessel assets of the group.”

The company also said the liquidators have been cooperating with the group’s creditors and other relevant stakeholders “to solicit potential investors who may be interested in acquiring the vessels and other assets of the group to maximise the recoveries for the group’s creditors.”

It was reported earlier this week that the Royal Caribbean Group was to buy the “ultra-luxury” cruise ship Endeavour for US$275 million. The vessel was originally delivered in 2021 to Crystal Cruises, a unit of Genting Hong Kong. Royal Caribbean said the purchase was being made “significantly below” the cost of the vessel’s construction.

In June, a casino cruise brand controlled by Malaysian entrepreneur Lim Kok Thay, launched services from Singapore, just a few months after the Lim family-founded Genting Hong Kong had entered provisional liquidation, and Mr Lim had resigned as chairman and chief executive of the latter firm.

The new entity – Resorts World Cruises – operates a vessel called Genting Dream, which was part of the fleet of another of Genting Hong Kong’s subsidiaries.

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