Genting Singapore Ltd., operator of Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore, continues to keep its eye on Japan, where the process to license and develop three integrated resorts has been temporarily suspended due to Covid-19.
In its annual report, the Malaysian company said it is “engaged in the ongoing request for concept by Yokohama City,” which has declared itself as a potential host city.
Genting Singapore said the firm would focus its “efforts and resources in delivering a compelling proposal which will make Yokohama a must-visit tourism destination with particular prominence” for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) business and for leisure.
Officials in Yokohama confirmed on April 15 that they have pushed back the publication date for their basic IR policy by two months, from July to August, along with the opening date for their request-for-proposal (RFP) phase.
A total of three IRs will be permitted in Japan under in the rollout of the new industry. Interested local governments must select private-sector development teams that may include a global operator as well as a local partner.
In February, Genting Singapore said shareholders had “near-unanimously” voted in favor of an investment “not exceeding US$10 billion” regarding “development, operation and/or ownership of an IR in Japan.”
Across the country, the process is unfolding more slowly due to the Covid-19 pandemic; on April 16, Japan’s government declared a national state of emergency in response to the outbreak.
On March 27, another IR contender, Osaka, said the submission deadline of its RFP process had been delayed from April to July; since then, Mayor Ichiro Matsui has suggested that that date might be pushed back even further.
Nagasaki, too, has bowed to the reality of the pandemic, saying it will now launch its RFP phase in a “couple of months.”
“At this moment, our main priority is to look at the IR partner selection procedure as a whole rather than only the RFP start date,” a source from Nagasaki told GGRAsia. “With respect to present global circumstances, we will not be starting the RFP submission procedure this spring … and we will continue to be flexible in our decisions ,especially during this time of stress for the global market and community.”
In related news, Genting Singapore parent Genting Bhd. is planning the first company-wide salary cut since its founding in 1965.
According to Bloomberg News, Genting, backed by Malaysian billionaire Lim Kok Thay, is proposing as much as a 20 percent temporary reduction of basic salary for employees based on their ranks, while Genting Hong Kong Ltd. suggests up to 50 percent cut for top-tier executives.
“The businesses of the Genting Group have been badly affected, resulting in significant reduction in revenue,” Genting Chief Operating Officer Tan Kong Han said. “When business resumes, we would expect to face challenges to regain the level of business prior to the pandemic due to the adverse impact that Covid-19 will have inflicted on the domestic and global economies.”
In other gaming news, Japan’s Minister for Economic Revitalization, Yasutoshi Nishimura, says the government may crack down on pachinko parlors that continue to operate despite the state of emergency declared by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The operators, for now at least, are not legally bound to close, and there’s no legal enforcement.
According to Nishimura, people have been observed crossing into other prefectures to gather at pachinko halls, prompting requests for stricter shutdown measures.
