Genting Malaysia Bhd’s flagship property, Resorts World Genting in Genting Highlands, closed again on May 31, and will likely remain closed for three months due to a surge in regional Covid-19 cases.
The subsequent lockdown will also likely delay the opening of RWG’s new theme park, Genting SkyWorlds, to the end of the year, reported Inside Asian Gaming.
The resort complex outside the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur was shut down for three months from March to June 2020 and again for 25 days from January 22 to February 15, 2021.
“Covid-19 vaccination is expected to surge from June 2021 to 150,000 per day as Malaysia takes delivery of 16 million COVID-19 vaccine doses,” said analyst Samuel Yin Shao Yang. “This will bring down the number of new-Covid-19 cases and hopefully preclude RWG from shutting going forward. RWG visitor arrivals rebounded quickly when it reopened and interstate travel was allowed in 3Q20.” The $800 million SkyWorlds “will only open in December 2021 to coincide with school holidays,” he added.
Yin has increased his projected core net loss for the company by 76 percent to MYR676 million (US$164 million) on a likely 29 percent decrease in visitation, from a previous estimate of 12 million visitors in 2021 to just 8.5 million.
