A tale of two Gentings: Singapore soars, Hong Kong sinks

Two different gaming divisions of Malaysian conglomerate Genting have reported sharply different fortunes so far in 2017.

On Monday, Genting Hong Kong issued a profit warning, alerting shareholders that it expects to post a net loss of between $200m and $220m in the six months ending June 30.

The forecast doesn’t include contributions from joint venture partner Travellers International Hotel Group, which operates the Resorts World Manila casino in the Philippines. Travellers has yet to report its own figures and Genting HK says it could issue a supplemental report once Travellers discloses its performance to the Philippine exchange.

The projected loss is a significant downgrade from the $73.7m Genting HK lost in H1 2016 but on par with the $502m loss in FY16. The company blamed the losses on increased competition for its Crystal Cruises shipboard casino business, rising costs at the German building shipyards it acquired in April 2016, and general depreciation of its new Genting Dream vessel.