Genting movie-inspired theme park open 2Q 2021: report

Jun 23, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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The long-anticipated and now-rejigged outdoor theme park for the Resorts World Genting complex, Malaysia’s only casino resort, is likely currently to open in the second quarter of next year, says management.

That is according to The Edge Markets, a financial news outlet, reporting comments from the management of resort promoter Genting Malaysia Bhd, made in the context of its annual general meeting on Monday.

In late May banking group Nomura had said – citing guidance from management – that the theme park was likely to be delayed until the fourth quarter of 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Casino operations at Resorts World Genting (pictured in a file photo) resumed on Friday but only initially for Genting Rewards members.

The property was first shuttered on March 18 as part of national efforts to contain the novel coronavirus associated with the Covid-19 infection.

Monday’s annual meeting also yielded some more details on the theme park’s content.

It will be called Genting SkyWorlds, and will still feature cinematic themes from intellectual property linked to the 20th Century Fox movie brand as well as other unnamed “international class” film-themed attractions, Genting Malaysia’s chief financial officer Koh Poy Yong reportedly told shareholders, as cited by The Edge Markets.

Ms Koh said Malaysia’s so-called Movement Control Order that had taken effect on March 18 had caused construction work to be paused on the theme park, but that it had now resumed. The controls on movement had also led to restrictions on foreign experts entering the country in order to assist with completing the theme park, the CFO noted.

The outdoor theme park should have originally carried “20th Century Fox” branding.

In July 2019 Genting Malaysia said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia it had reached a settlement “fully resolving” what had previously been reported as a circa US$1-billion lawsuit in the United States on the matter.

In October, Maybank IB Research had said guidance from Genting Malaysia’s management had indicated the cost of the outdoor theme park at the resort in Genting Highlands outside Kuala Lumpur would go above US$700 million, which Maybank had not been expecting.

Genting swung to a first-quarter net loss of nearly MYR418.0 million (US$96.0 million), compared to a MYR268.3-million net profit in the prior-year quarter, in results announced in late May. It blamed the deterioration in business on the effects of the pandemic.

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