SOUTH EAST ASIA 24
MALAYSIA
Genting settles with Wynn, though legal issues drag Genting Malaysia looks set to go it alone with its outdoor theme park, while its legal dispute with former partners Fox Entertainment and The Walt Disney Co. drags on.
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he company opened the park as part of a Chinese New Year celebration, allowing visitors to stroll around the zone and buy food and drinks from food trucks. However, no rides were operating. The Fox-themed entertainment park was scheduled to be the centerpiece of the revamped Resorts World Genting IR, the only legal casino operation in Malaysia. However, Fox pulled out in November last year, amidst speculation that new owner, Disney, had not wanted its brand associated with gambling. Genting launched a lawsuit in the U.S. seeking $1 billion in damages from Fox, prompting a response in January under which the U.S. company claimed breach of contract and claimed $46.4 million from Genting. However, Fox didn’t seek to stop the opening of the park. “What piqued our interest is that neither Fox nor Disney sought an injunction to preclude GENM from opening the OTP as we had earlier feared,” Maybank analyst
Asia Gaming Briefings | March 2019
Samuel Yin Shao Yang said in a note. “This implies that GENM may be able to proceed to either operate the OTP by itself or partner with other studios.” Maybank said it expects the park to open in the first quarter of next year and will help drive visitation by two million arrivals, or 9 percent a year. Genting Malaysia, combined with its parent company and sister, Genting Singapore, forms one of the world’s largest gaming groups with operations spanning from the Philippines to New York, the Bahamas, the U.K. and a planned IR in Las Vegas. However, the group has been mired in legal action over the past year. Aside from the issues with its Malaysian theme park, Genting came under fire late last year from Wynn Resorts, which accused it of seeking to mislead clients by copying the design of Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, which are just across the street from the proposed
$4 billion Resorts World Las Vegas. Genting has since directed its design team to make several changes and as a result Wynn has dropped its lawsuit. The revised rendering is simpler with no giant Chinese lantern hanging from the side of hotel towers. It also colours the hotel towers in scarlet red and not the maroon red that Wynn had taken issue with. “Genting’s Resorts World Las Vegas project will be the launching point for the next generation of integrated resorts, and the aesthetics of the project will play an important role in its future success,” said Michael Levoff, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs & Development, Genting. “While the company believes the design to have had differences with Wynn and Encore’s once fully realized, after further consideration and conversations with the Wynn team, we have directed our design team to make several changes that will clearly differentiate the two properties. This mutually beneficial settlement will allow
