Genting Malaysia should reach pre-pandemic level EBITDA by 2022

Genting Malaysia’s Resorts World Genting has recovered to 66 per cent of 2019 Q3 revenue.

Malaysia.- According to Fitch Ratings Inc, Genting Malaysia should recover from the Covid-19 pandemic “in one or two years” thanks to maintaining financial discipline and operating flexibility.

Although analysts predicted that Genting Malaysia will see earnings fall by 10 per cent in 2021, the company has good prospects thanks to healthy demand from the domestic market.

Fitch also expects Genting Malaysia net debt/EBITDA would fall to below three times by end-2022.

The company’s Malaysian IR, Resorts World Genting (RWG), suspended operations in January 2021 after a new wave of Covid-19 but reopened a month later.

Fitch said: “The jump in gross gaming revenues when there are no travel bans shows resilient domestic demand, which supports Genting Malaysia’s recovery.”

The company is expecting to open an outdoor theme park at the RWG in mid-2021 which could draw an additional 1.5 million to 2 million visitors per year and generate an additional MYR400m to MYR500m in revenue.

Genting Bhd CEO sees signs of “nascent recovery” in gaming across Asia

Lim Kok Thay, chairman and chief executive of Genting Bhd, said the regional gaming market has seen a nascent recovery.

He said Genting would continue to take measures to optimise productivity and improve operational efficiency although the Covid-19 pandemic brought “unprecedented challenges.”

Lim Kok Thay also talked about the expansion of Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore and reaffirmed a capital expenditure budget of SGD4.5bn (US$3.4bn) to incorporate health and safety measures to adapt the complex to the post-pandemic environment.

He said Genting Singapore continues to have an interest in a casino licence in Japan and the group would “evaluate the conditions” of futures request-for-proposal processes for a Japan integrated resort.