Genting Berhad: More Forays

Just when you think the big bang is about to start,you find Genting Bhd. has other plans as well near their newly minted integrated casino resort south of the border.

According to Lim Kok Thay, Genting will now build a theme park and hotel in Malaysia’s in the Iskandar region to ride on the expected surge in visitors to neighboring Singapore where it is set to open a US$4.4 billion ($6.1 billion) casino resort.

Singapore has said it hopes to lure 17 million visitors and triple annual tourism revenue to $30 billion by 2015 with the opening of two casino resorts, including Genting’s Resorts World Sentosa.

“We want visitors to Sentosa to come to our Malaysian resorts as well,” Chief Executive Officer Lim Kok Thay told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today at the company’s 45th anniversary celebration.

Genting, Asia’s largest publicly traded casino operator, is already working on a joint venture project to develop a Chelsea high-end shopping complex in Johor’s Iskandar special economic development zone. Its proposed theme park and hotel development would be centered around this, Lim said.

“We can make Iskandar as a hub and offer tourists a complete holiday package,” Lim said, adding that the development may attract “millions of visitors” each year.

It hopes many of these will travel on to its hill-top gambling resort in Genting Highlands, near Kuala Lumpur, which the company hopes will attract as many as 30 million visitors a year in five years’ time, Lim said.

U.S. EXPANSION

Genting Plantations Bhd., a Kuala Lumpur-listed unit of Genting, will invest 200 million ringgit to develop Chelsea premium shopping centers in Malaysia, including the one in Iskandar, in a joint venture with Indiana-based Simon Property Group Inc.

With its Singapore casino report set to open, Genting is also looking at “opportunities” to further invest in the U.S., Lim said, without being specific.

The Malaysian company said in June it’s considering a possible partnership with MGM Mirage, the U.S.-based casino company partly owned by Kirk Kerkorian. Genting paid $100 million for a 3.2% stake in MGM Mirage, which has a joint venture casino in Macau with Pansy Ho, daughter of gambling magnate Stanley Ho.

A combined $100 million of secured notes sold by MGM Mirage have also been bought by Genting and its domestic casino arm Genting Malaysia Bhd.

Genting hopes to open its Universal Studios Singapore by the end of next week, Lim said in a speech today. Its casino operation will open as soon as it obtains a gambling license from the government, he added, declining to provide a specific time frame.

GAMBLING LICENSE

Genting Singapore Plc., the company’s unit that’s building the casino resort in the city state, climbed 3.2% to $1.29 yesterday on speculation the company will obtain the gambling license before the Chinese New Year holiday next month. The stock fell 0.8% at the close of trading in Singapore today, after earlier rising as much as 2.3%.

Resorts World Sentosa began operations two weeks ago, with the opening of its Festive Hotel and Hard Rock Hotel, Lim said. Its Hotel Michael started operations on Jan. 13 and its Crockford Tower will be opened tomorrow.

Lim said the group has no immediate plan to raise more funds or sell more bonds in the near future, although it wouldn’t rule out such a possibility “if the markets are favorable.”

Genting sold 1.45 billion ringgit of 10-year bonds in November, more than an original plan to raise 900 million ringgit, after investors bid for more than the notes on offer.

So, let us see how Genting will do when Universal Studios open up next week. If the casino license is issued before the Chinese New Year, it will indeed be a bonanza for the entire Genting group!