Genting Singapore Struggling To Find Opportunities To Expand

Genting Singapore operates Resorts World Sentosa, one of the two legalized casinos in Singapore – the other being the Marina Bay Sands which belongs to the Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Genting Singapore has done rather well during the last couple of quarters based on reports from Sanford Bernstein who stated that the company has made a net profit during the first quarter of 2017 of S$181 million.

This was a 17 percent increase for Genting Singapore when compared to the first quarter in 2016.

Genting Singapore is a subsidiary of the Malaysian based Genting Group did better than what Sanford Bernstein analyst had predicted with regards to EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation] but the company’s gross gaming revenue growth rate was lower than what the analysts had estimated.

Sanford Bernstein released a reporting highlighting the fact that although Genting Singapore had experienced two successful quarters, the company was still finding it difficult to create new opportunity that would allow it to expand and grow its revenue in Singapore. The brokerage firm also decided to reduce Genting Singapore’s forecasted net revenue by 2 percent for 2017 which is approximately S$2.32 billion.

Analysts from Sanford Bernstein stated that due to a sluggish mass market segment, low non-gaming and VIP gaming revenue, they decided to reduce their forecasted revenue. The analysts pointed out that changes to the VIP commission pay structure would significantly hamper the VIP market segment as the new pay structure was not very attractive.

In a statement, Sanford Bernstein analysts said

EBITDA has been steadily improving due to final write down of un-collectable VIP receivables, cost cuts and better VIP commission ratio. Although the operating cost structure has improved, we still see lack of growth in the Singapore business.

Genting Singapore has made its intentions clear just like a number of other casino operators by stating that it wants to enter the recently legalized casino industry in Japan. Regulators are still putting together a proposal that will specify the criteria for obtaining a casino license, the location for the new casino and tax rates that operators will have to pay. Industry analysts believe that Japan will initially approve only two casino licenses to see how things work out before going ahead with more licenses.

The report from Sanford Bernstein analysts makes it appear that it will be very difficult for Genting Singapore to secure a casino license as it faces stiff competition from major players like MGM Resorts and Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Adrian Sterne

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