RWG theme park open end-2017: GEN Malaysia

Aug 30, 2016 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Management at Genting Malaysia Bhd – operator of the Resorts World Genting (RWG) casino resort in Malaysia – has given guidance to investors that the 20th Century Fox World Malaysia theme park planned for the venue would open by the end of 2017.

“Management reiterated its guidance that the new facilities [at the property], which include the retail components and additional gaming capacity under the Genting Integrated Tourism Plan (GITP), should begin opening progressively by year-end, while the Fox World [sic] theme park would be opened by end-2017,” said a note on Friday from analyst Lim Tee Yang of Affin Hwang Investment Bank Bhd. The note was distributed by Daiwa Securities Group Inc.

The note followed the announcement of second quarter results for Genting Malaysia, which also operates casinos in the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Bahamas. Group profit for the April to June period was MYR465.3 million (US$115.9 million), up 108 percent year-on-year.

In March Japanese brokerage Nomura had said completion of 20th Century Fox World Malaysia – a facility being developed at Genting Malaysia’s hillside casino resort (pictured in a file photo) outside the country’s capital Kuala Lumpur – would “not happen before end-2017”.

“We expect second half 2016 [at Resorts World Genting] to be better operationally due to seasonally higher gaming volume and the opening of Sky Plaza,” said Samuel Yin Shao Yang, an analyst at Maybank IB Research, in a note on Friday.

Sky Plaza is part of the improvements planned for the resort, to be realised under the Genting Integrated Tourism Plan. Sky Plaza, which Maybank said is due to open in the fourth quarter, will feature a podium including new gaming space.

In other developments, Genting Malaysia’s parent Genting Bhd reported its results last week.

A note on Friday from Affin Hwang regarding Genting Bhd gave an update on a casino project from the group in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the United States. It said that the opening of Genting’s Resorts World Las Vegas  – to be built on an 87-acre (35.2-hectare) Las Vegas Strip site once earmarked for Boyd Gaming Corp’s Echelon project – would now be put back to the second half of 2019.

When the project broke ground in May 2015, a 2018 launch was mentioned.

Affin Hwang stated in its latest note on the scheme: “Management is now guiding that work mobilisation would only start in early 2017, instead of the fourth quarter 2016. Management is now planning for the casino resort to open in the second half 2019, instead of first quarter 2019.”

The scheme is said by its promoters to have Chinese and other Asian themes designed to appeal to customers from China and East Asia.

(Updated at 9.45am, Aug 31)

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