Published November 14, 2008

Genting Int'l posts lower Q3 loss of $116m

Revenue bolstered by gaming wins, but hit by higher bad debts, forex losses

By ARTHUR SIM
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GENTING International has reported revenue of $177.4 million for the third quarter of 2008, down one per cent from $178.86 million a year earlier.

It registered a net loss of $116.83 million for the quarter, compared with a net loss of $393.38 million in Q3 last year.

Genting, which is building Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS), said Q3 revenue was bolstered by gaming wins, but results were affected by higher bad debts and exchange losses.

It registered $20.8 million of net bad debts attributed to gaming operations in the UK, which were written off in Q3.

Genting said this was cushioned by fair-value gains of $17.1 million on derivative instruments.

Giving an update on its financial position, it said RWS completed on April 24 this year its syndication for up to $4.19 billion syndicated senior secured credit facilities - comprising $4 billion loans and $192.5 million banker's guarantee. The credit facilities are expected to fund two-thirds of the estimated project cost of RWS, with the remaining cost to be met internally and from a rights issue in 2007.

On Nov 3 this year, the company achieved financial close on the $4.19 billion limited recourse finance for the integrated resort development. On Nov 10, the company completed its first drawdown of this facility, amounting to $600 million.

In October, Genting increased its equity investment in RWS by subscribing for 300 million new ordinary shares for a total of $300 million, bringing the number of ordinary shares it has subscribed for to 2 billion, as planned.

Genting said that at Sept 30 this year it had awarded or committed more than $4.2 billion of the $6 billion project costs of RWS.

Of this, more than $3.1 billion relates to awarded construction contracts, ranging from road diversion works to reclamation, sub-structure and main-builder works for four hotels, casinos, a ballroom, showroom, retail area and Universal Studios Singapore.

Genting's net loss per share for the first nine months of this year were 1.17 cents, down from 5.46 cents a year earlier.

The company's stock closed one cent lower at 38.5 cents yesterday.