Genting Singapore has continued to stay afloat in the absence of any significant international business, reporting a net profit of SG$88.2 million (US$65.0 million) through the first six months of 2021, reversing a loss of SG$116.7 million (US$86.0 million) recorded in 1H20.
The improvement came on the back of a 24% year-on-year increase in revenue to SG$554.8 million (US$408.7 million). Based on the company’s previously reported revenue of SG$277.9 million (US$204.7 million) for the March quarter, revenue remained flat in 2Q21 at SG$276.9 million (US$204.0 million) while net profit increased from SG$34.5 million (US$25.4 million) in Q1 to SG$53.7 million (US$39.6 million) in Q2.
Gaming segment revenue at the company’s Singapore integrated resort, Resorts World Sentosa, grew 61.4% year-on-year in 1H21 and 4.2% for the quarter (versus Q1) to SG$442.9 million (US$326.3 million) although 1H21 non-gaming revenue declined 28.3% year-on-year to SG$104.3 million (US$76.8 million).
Adjusted EBITDA grew by more than 300% year-on-year for the first six months of 2021 from SG$66.7 million (US$49.1 million) to SG$276.1 million (US$203.4 million).
Genting Singapore said it remains unclear when it can expect to see a more significant increase in its business volumes given the ongoing impact of the COVID-190 pandemic.
“With cross-border travel being severely curtailed in our traditional markets, most of our key offerings at RWS continued to operate at considerably lower levels compared to pre-COVID-19 pandemic,” it said.
“While Singapore has progressively been reopening the economy at the start of the year, the emergence of a new virus variant and the detection of several clusters of infections, resulted in the Multi-Ministry Taskforce reintroducing stricter measures and tighter restrictions.
“The current situation only caters to a limited market of the smaller local population. In the short term, we do not anticipate any measurable increase in business sentiment until we have greater visibility of the border openings.”
Nomura analysts Tushar Mohata and Alpa Aggarwal said in a research note following release of Genting Singapore’s results that it could be some time before the company sees any meaningful improvement.
“Overall revenue upside remains capped as the borders remain closed and Genting Singapore still relies on the limited local market for visitation,” they wrote.
“Additionally, while the resort attractions were running at ~65% capacity from January to May for 4 days per week, since Singapore moved to phase 2 heightened alert in mid-May, capacity was restricted to 25%, with operations restricted to 3 days per week. Recent emergence of clusters and the rise in cases has meant that restrictions for dine-ins and group size limits continue.”