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Genting Singapore Plc reported second-quarter profit of $396.5 million compared with a loss a year earlier as its new casino resort in Singapore “made an impact” in its first full quarter of operations.
Revenue surged to $979.3 million in the three months to June 30 compared with $120.1 million a year ago, according to a filing to the Singapore stock exchange today. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, were US$513.9 million ($700.1 million), with margins of 52%, the statement said.
Revenue surged to $979.3 million in the three months to June 30 compared with $120.1 million a year ago, according to a filing to the Singapore stock exchange today. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, were US$513.9 million ($700.1 million), with margins of 52%, the statement said.
Singapore overturned a 40-year ban on casinos in 2005 to spur economic growth. Genting’s US$4.7 billion Resorts World Sentosa opened on Feb. 14 and features Southeast Asia’s only Universal Studios theme park. Billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. opened its rival US$5.5 billion Marina Bay Sands casino resort in the financial district in April.
The group’s Ebitda figure was “way above our $244m and consensus forecasts, which we think was $220m,” Aaron Fischer, a casinos analyst at CLSA Ltd. in Hong Kong, wrote in an e-mail. “With such strong set of results, our fair value for the stock will likely be revised to at least $1.50.”
Genting Singapore, controlled by Malaysia’s Genting Bhd., is the second-best performer on the Straits Times Index over the past 12 months, surging about 50% compared with the benchmark’s 14% gain.
The shares ended at $1.28 today before the results announcement, compared to their record close of $1.30 in December. Fischer’s target price for the stock is $1.30, according to Bloomberg data.
‘SHOWED RESILENCE’
“The gaming operator’s new flagship integrated resort Resorts World Sentosa made an impact, raising the group’s Ebitda,” Genting Singapore said in a media release. “With the opening of Marina Bay Sands, our business showed resilience,” the results filing said.
Monthly tourist arrivals in Singapore exceeded the 1 million mark for the first time in July, aided by the opening of two casino resorts, according to data from the tourism board. Two-thirds of the visitors to Genting Singapore’s casino in the city-state came from overseas, President Tan Hee Teck said in the media release.
Parent Genting Bhd., which holds 52% of Genting Singapore, said in July that it would buy the Singapore affiliate’s U.K. casino businesses for 340 million pounds ($722.3 million). Genting Singapore owns and operates 46 casinos in the United Kingdom, according to the media release.
Genting Singapore will hold an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on Aug. 18 to approve the sale, the media release said. The company “plans to focus on its large-scale, integrated resort operations in Singapore and similar-natured opportunities in the region,” it said.
