Singaporean gaming operator Genting Singapore PLC registered S$382.9 million (MOP2.26 billion/US$281.6 million) in net profits in the first half of this year, mainly due to the sale of its half of a joint venture on Jeju Island, a Singapore Stock Exchange filing said.
In November 2016 the Singapore group sold a 50 per cent stake in the South Korean integrated resort Jeju Shinhwa World to Mainland developer and casino investor Landing International Development Ltd. for SGD596.3 million, making the Chinese company the sole owner of the property.
According to the filing, the disposal was completed in January of this year with the proceeds, including a ‘gain on disposal of S$96.3 million’ included in the group’s consolidated statements for the period ended June 30 of this year.
The sale allowed the group to reverse a negative net loss of S$10.5 million in the second quarter of 2016 to S$143.3 million in positive net profit in the second quarter of this year.
Stable gaming
The company – which operates Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore – also recorded a 24 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue to S$596.1 million in the first six months of this year, a rise the group attributed to higher rolling win percentage in the premium player business.
Meanwhile, its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the first half of this year saw a considerable 85 per cent yearly hike to SGD576 million.
The group’s revenues from gaming in the first half of the year went up 12 per cent year-on-year to S$876.6 million due to the stability of VIP business.
Genting Singapore also announced it was ‘closely following the progress of the Japan IR Execution Bill, which will pave the way for the formal bidding process of the Japan gaming licences’.
