Operator News
Malaysia – Maybank slashes Genting Malaysia profit guide
By Phil - 8 June 2021
Losses at Genting Malaysia’s flagship IR Resorts World Genting (RWG) could plunge by 76 per cent to reach MYR676m (US$164m) with attendance likely to drop by 29 per cent through continued closure from the coronavirus pandemic.
Maybank Research has revised its previous estimate of 12m visitors in 2021 to just 8.5m with the casino located outside the capital city of Kuala Lumpur to be shuttered for three months.
Maybank analyst Samuel Yin Shao Yang said: “RWG was shut for three months from March 18 to June 18 2020 and shut again for 25 days from 22 January to 15 February 2021. We gather that RWG will be shut for three months this time and Genting SkyWorlds will only open in December 2021 to coincide with school holidays (10 December to 31 December 2021). Thus, we cut FY21E RWG visitor arrivals … and widen FY21E core net loss by 76 per cent. COVID-19 vaccination is expected to surge from June 2021 to 150,000 per day as Malaysia takes delivery of 16 million COVID-19 vaccine doses,.”
“This will bring down the number of new-COVID-19 cases and hopefully preclude RWG from shutting going forward. RWG visitor arrivals rebounded quickly when it reopened and interstate travel was allowed in 3Q20,” he said.
Mr. Yin highlighted that Genting Malaysia’s UK casinos had now reopened and that in the US, Resorts World New York was back to pre-COVID revenues with Resorts World Catskills bouncing back to 84 per cent.
