Genting's 3Q loss widens to RM344.55m amid lower EBITDA, higher depreciation and finance costs

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 26): Genting Bhd reported a wider net loss of RM344.55 million for its third quarter ended Sept 30, 2021 (3QFY21), compared with RM130.75 million in the corresponding quarter last year, as it saw lower earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), and higher depreciation and net finance costs with the opening of its Resorts World Las Vegas towards end-June.

Also contributing to the weaker quarter was its share of losses from joint ventures and associates, in particular from the Meizhou Wan power plant in China — compared to a profit in the previous year's corresponding quarter —mainly due to higher coal costs.

"This was partially offset by lower share of losses from Genting Malaysia Group’s associate, Genting Empire Resorts LLC, the holding company of Empire Resorts Inc, mainly due to continued improvement in Empire’s operating performance, following the full relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions since June 2021," it said in a statement on Thursday (Nov 25).

Further offsetting some of the impact of the drags on earnings were lower impairment losses, lower pre-opening expenses incurred by RMLV compared with a year ago, and write-back of accounting accruals that are no longer needed by Genting Singapore Ltd, and which was made previously for the latter's bid for the Yokohama Integrated Resort.

The weakened quarter came despite revenue rising 6% to RM3.50 billion from RM3.3 billion in 3QFY20, its bourse filing showed. The group said its adjusted EBITDA for 3QFY21 was RM908.2 million, down 17% from about RM1.1 billion previously, mainly dragged by its leisure and hospitality division.

For its nine months ended Sept 30 (9MFY21), the group’s net loss rose 18.18% to RM1.24 billion, from RM1.05 billion in 9MFY20, despite revenue improving by about 2% to RM8.69 billion from RM8.52 billion.

The improved cumulative earnings was due to a 40% increase in EBITDA to RM2.41 billion from RM1.73 billion previously, thanks to improved Ebitda from both its leisure and hospitality, and plantation divisions.

On prospects, the conglomerate said the recovery of global economy — as well as Malaysia and its tourism industry — is expected to continue, which will augur well for its leisure and hospitality businesses, though downside risks remain due to uncertainties surrounding the evolution of the pandemic, ongoing supply chain disruptions, and escalating energy prices and inflationary risks.

As for its plantation business under Genting Plantations Bhd (GenP), the group said GenP expects palm oil prices for the remainder part of the year to remain resilient, with fresh fruit bunch production anticipated to be comparable to the level attained in 2020.

As for its energy business, it updated, among others, that the performance of its Banten coal-fired power plant in Indonesia has returned to normal with 100% availability, after the minor outage that occured from end-December 2020 to early February 2021. "The plant load factor remains high since second quarter until October 2020, when it dropped marginally due to some delays in coal supplies arising from local shortage. The supplies of coal have returned to normal since November 2021," it added.

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