The lingering aftereffects of the deadly Batang Kali landslide in December is likely to weigh heavily on Genting Malaysia’s 1Q23 financial results, with rainy weather and fear of more landslides keeping many customers away, according to Maybank IB analyst Samuel Yin Shao Yang.
In a Wednesday note, Yin said the landslide had already seen visitation to the company’s flagship Malaysian property, Resorts World Genting (RWG), fall 10% in the December 2022 quarter, and this has continued into Q1.
“We understand that rainy weather in January and February 2023 discouraged many from visiting RWG, especially during the peak Chinese New Year season, for fear of another landslide,” he wrote. “Thus, 1Q23 core net profit may not be better quarter-on-quarter.”
Yin has also slashed his earnings estimates for FY23 by 16% on an expected loss of around 500,000 visitors, although he notes that Q1 is likely to be the “last valley before the peak” given more promising signs of late.
“We understand that RWG visitor arrivals accelerated from March 2023 onwards as the weather turned drier and all 10,500 rooms are now available thanks to sufficient labour for room upkeep,” he said, noting that RWG had on average only 7,000 rooms available throughout 2022.
“The latter is especially important as overnighters spend considerably more than day trippers. RWG gross gaming revenue is perfectly correlated to room nights sold.”
Genting Malaysia previously reported a loss of MYR469 million (US$106 million) in 4Q22, with a raft of one-off expense items overshadowing a 29% gain in group-wide revenue for the period to MYR2.43 billion (US$548 million).
RelatedPosts
