Maybank Kim Eng’s Yin Shao Yang is keeping his “buy” call and 95 cents target price on Genting Singapore, following 4QFY2020 earnings reported by Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Marina Bay Sands, owned by the US casino operator, was able to double its operating profit between 4Q and 3QFY2020, as mass-market gamblers returned.

“We gather that Genting Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa will exhibit similar trends when it releases its 4Q20 results on 9 Feb 2021,” writes Yin in his Jan 28 note.

“We also do not discount the possibility that Genting Singapore will announce a final dividend per share then as we expect the ‘RWS2.0’ capex plan to be largely deferred,” he adds.

According to Las Vegas Sands Corp, MBS’s 4Q operating profit was up 106% q-o-q to US$144 million.

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“We gather the aforementioned was due to MBS being allowed to increase operating capacity from 25% to 50% from 18 Sep 2020. 

“We also gather that MBS casino was also open to all guests from 9 Oct 2020. It was previously open only to Sands Rewards members,” says Yin.

MBS’ planned expansion is going to be deferred, due to the on-going pandemic. Genting Singapore’s too, similarly, is likely to be deferred too.

As such, pressure will ease on Genting Singapore’s FY2020 and FY2021’s cash flow, thereby giving the company more room to pay a dividend despite the business hit from the pandemic, says Yin.

As at 9.25am, Genting Singapore was trading at 87 cents.