Just five days after stepping down as Genting Hong Kong’s Deputy CEO, Lim Keong Hui looks set to take nightclub brand Zouk Group off the company’s hands.
Genting HK announced on Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with Lim that will see the 35-year-old – son of Genting Group Chairman and CEO Lim Kok Thay – acquire Zouk Group for SG$14 million (US$10.3 million).
Zouk, which was acquired by Genting HK in 2015, operates a nightclub in Singapore under the Zouk name and has expanded to Kuala Lumpur and Resorts World Genting via franchise.
The decision to offload the brand comes after Genting HK last month suspended all payments to the group’s financial creditors in order to preserve liquidity amid growing COVID-19 pressures. It has since met with some of those creditors to “agree and implement a consensual solvent restructuring solution” following a crippling US$743 million loss in the first half of 2020.
On Tuesday, the company explained that it has taken “swift countermeasures to aggressively minimize expenses and conserve cash to lower our cash burn rate.
“We continue our efforts to conserve cash and to seek additional sources of finance, including disposal of non-core assets and investments, to sustain our business pending resumption of cruise operations,” it said. “The disposal will enable the Group to offload non-core assets and investment and provide liquidity to the Group.”
Lim only last week announced he was stepping down from his roles as Genting HK’s Deputy CEO and Executive Director to focus on other business commitments. He was first appointed Deputy CEO in January 2019.
