Inside Asian Gaming

IAG OCT 2020年10月 亞博匯 14 亞博匯早報 BREAKFAST BRIEFS GENTING MALAYSIA SHAREHOLDERS UNLIKELY TO BE PLEASED BY LATEST EMPIRE FUNDING 雲頂馬來西亞的股東不太屬意對 EMPIRE RESORTS的最新交易 A SEPTEMBER ANNOUNCEMENT by Genting Malaysia that it is injecting US$150 million into its 49%-owned US subsidiary, Empire Resorts, by way of a subscription agreement won’t sit well with company shareholders, according to investment bank Nomura. The injection, which does not require shareholder approval because it keeps the company’s aggregate percentage ratio of related- party transactions below the 5% threshold, was described by Genting Malaysia as necessary to ensure Empire has the funds to fulfil its short-term debt obligations and to resume operations of its primary New York asset, Resorts World Catskills. However, pointing to the 12% fall in Genting Malaysia’s share price when it first announced its intention to acquire Empire last August, Nomura’s Tushar Mohata said minority shareholders are “likely tobeunhappywith this trancheof investment in Empire” as well, for three main reasons. Those reasons include the fact that their vote isn’t required, the failure of a previous US$475 million bond offering as part of Empire’s long- term fundraising plan, and most significantly the fact that Empire and Resorts World Catskills are likely to remain loss-making for the immediate future. “While Resorts World Catskills just reopened on 9 September after a prolonged shutdown due to COVID-19, it remains likely that losses into the next few quarters will remain even higher than 1Q20’s loss of US$53 million (Genting Malaysia’s share being US$26 million),” Mohata said. “As a result, Empire will continue to be a drag on Genting Malaysia’s financials in the near future, to the tune of associate losses of MYR400 million (US$96 million)-plus per year.” 投資銀行野村證券 表示，雲頂馬來西亞在其9月的公告中宣佈，通過認 購協議向其持有49％股權的美國子公司Empire Resorts注資1.5億美 元，該舉或令公司股東不滿。 雲頂馬來西亞表示，這筆注資是必要的，其將確保Empire Resorts 有足夠資金來履行其短期債務義務，並且可恢復其紐約的主要資產Re- sorts World Catskills的運營。該筆注資因其使得公司關聯方交易的總 百分比低於5%而無需股東批准。 然而，野村證券的Tushar Mohata指出，有鑒於去年8月雲頂馬來 西亞首次宣佈有意收購Empire Resorts時其股價下跌了12％，小股東「 也很可能對該筆對Empire Resorts的投資感到不滿」。 這些原因包括不需要他們投票，此前曾發行的4.75億美元債券 作為作為Empire公司長期融資計劃的一部分的失敗，以及最重要的 是，Empire和其Resorts World Catskills可能在不久的將來仍繼續虧 損。 Mohata表示：「在因為新冠疫情關閉數月後，Resorts World Catskills在9月9日重新開放，但其未來幾個季度內的虧損仍可能會超 過2020年第一季度虧損的5300萬美元（其中雲頂馬來西亞的份額為 2600萬美元）。」 「因此，Empire在不久的將來仍將繼續拖累雲頂馬來西亞的財 務，由此每年造成的損失高達4億林吉特（9600萬美元）」。