SOUTH EAST ASIA 26
SINGAPORE
Genting outshines Marina Bay Sands in Q4 It was a tale of two resorts in Singapore over the last reporting quarter, with Genting Singapore, the former market laggard, outperforming its rival Marina Bay Sands on almost all metrics.
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arina Bay Sands, owned by Las “Higher VIP volumes (+10 percent y/y) are Vegas Sands, said its adjusted likely being driven by more credit extension. property EBITDA fell almost 21 We are concerned about the increase in bad percent in the quarter, while its debt provision, and don’t buy management’s overall revenue fell 17 percent. Gaming revenue downplay - saying it’s only a “blip” from quarter eked out a 4.4 percent gain. to quarter and the company is maintaining same The company said performance at the iconic credit extension level,” they said. resort had been affected by weak VIP revenue. Resorts World Sentosa hosts the Universal Rolling chip volume was down almost 14 percent Studios theme park, as well as a large aquarium. on a win rate of 2.79 percent compared with The company said it had seen average daily 3.95 percent in the same period the prior year. visitation of more than 21,000 to its attractions Its non-rolling chip drop fell 6.2 percent. and an increase in visitor spending. Genting Singapore on the other hand Commenting on the prospects for 2019, reported that its focus Genting said it was on marketing to the “cautious about the premium mass segment ambiguous economic had paid off. The operator environment and ongoing Singapore’s of Resorts World Sentosa geopolitical friction that two IRs, although has now rebounded after is clouding the growth getting bad debts that of the Asian gaming and highly profitable, crippled profits two tourism market.” have struggled years ago under control. Singapore’s two It posted a 12 percent IRs, although highly to boost topline gain in Q4 net profit, profitable, have struggled growth in a highly saying that over the year it to boost topline growth in regulated market. had seen an encouraging a highly regulated market, performance in both with few opportunities gaming and non-gaming for further expansion. business. Maybank Research For Q4, net profit came in at S$150 million says ideally MBS would like to invest more in ($111 million). Revenue gained 15 percent to Singapore, with both its mall and hotel operations $664.7 million. Revenue from gaming during still reporting healthy growth of just over 8 percent. the quarter jumped 20 percent to $444 million. “MBS would like more hotel rooms to house For the full year Genting, which operates the more premium mass market gamblers and more Resorts World Sentosa property in Singapore, slots and electronic table games for grind mass said profit gained 28 percent after stripping out market gamblers,” it said in a note, adding that a one-off gain from the prior year from the sale its Q4 results were not all bad. of its stake in an IR in South Korea. Singapore saw strong growth in visitation in That said, analysts at Bernstein Research 2018, suggesting there would be healthy demand were unimpressed, saying the result was below for more hotel accommodation. Marina Bay Sand’s its expectations. hotel occupancy rates during the quarter were at
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Asia Gaming Briefings | March 2019
95.5 percent, with an average daily rate of $423. Visitor arrivals to Singapore hit a record 18.5 million in 2018, clocking a 6.2 percent increase from the previous year, according to data released by the Singapore Tourism Board. This was driven by double-digit growth in visitor arrivals from India, USA, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom. The visitor increase translated into only a modest increase in tourism spending, with receipts up one percent year-on-year to S$27.1 billion, according to preliminary estimates. There was an increase in the sightseeing, entertainment, and gaming spending, up 6 percent year-on-year, however, there was a drop in spending on shopping (down 14 percent), accommodation (down 5 percent) and F&B (down 4 percent) in the year. India, Indonesia and, China registered the highest growth when it came to spending. For 2019, STB forecasts tourism receipts to be in the range of S$27.3 to S$27.9 billion (+1 to +3 percent) and international visitor arrivals to be in the range of 18.7 to 19.2 million (+1 to +4 percent).
