GGRAsia – Genting Singapore confirms 2015 final dividend

Genting Singapore confirms 2015 final dividend

Apr 22, 2016 Newsdesk Latest News, Singapore, Top of the deck

Genting Singapore Plc, operator of the Resorts World Sentosa casino resort (pictured) in Singapore, confirmed on Thursday a final dividend of SGD0.015 (US$0.011) per ordinary share for the year ending December 31.

The exclusion date for the dividend is May 5, with payment due on May 19. The dividend confirmation followed Genting Singapore’s annual meeting.

Bank Morgan Stanley gave a preview on Thursday of Genting Singapore’s likely first quarter 2016 operating numbers.

“Genting Singapore could see stable mass [market gambling revenue] but miss VIP expectation in upcoming first quarter result, if it follows similar trend as Marina Bay Sands,” wrote the bank’s analysts Praveen Choudhary, Thomas Allen and Xin Jin Ling, referring to the rival Singapore casino resort developed and operated by Las Vegas Sands Corp.

According to the latter’s first quarter results filed in New York on Wednesday, Marina Bay Sands reported hold adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of nearly US$383 million, up 1 percent quarter-on-quarter and 10 percent year-on-year in Singapore dollar terms. Genting Singapore is listed in Singapore and reports its results in that city-state’s currency.

Marina Bay Sands’ first quarter mass-market gambling revenue was up 3 percent quarter-on-quarter, while VIP roll was down 5 percent sequentially.

Morgan Stanley noted that bad debt provisions for the first quarter at Marina Bays Sands had “remained elevated” at US$32 million, which the bank said was similar to the fourth quarter. The institution said Genting Singapore’s provisions for bad debt in the first quarter could be SGD52 million, which it said would be equivalent to 20 percent of its likely VIP revenue for the period.

Morgan Stanley said of Genting Singapore’s likely first quarter results: “We forecast revenue of SGD684 million (+25 percent quarter-on-quarter, +7 percent year-on-year) and EBITDA of SGD220 million (+26 percent quarter-on-quarter, -2 percent year-on-year), assuming normalised VIP hold rate of 2.85 percent versus fourth quarter win rate of 2.1 percent. However, we could see slight downside risk to our VIP volumes expectation.”