Genting Spore facing mass competition from Philippines/Cambodia

Monday 10th of December 2018

Genting Singapore is facing increasing competition in the mass market from the Philippines and Cambodia, though management sees room for growth in VIP, according to Nomura.

The firm recently hosted the operator’s management team for an investor meeting at a forum in Tokyo.

The company says it expects growth in coming quarters in VIP as it incrementally increases credit from overly tight levels of the past few years as it moved to bring down bad debt.

Management is targeting business from new and existing customers across the ASEAN and North Asian markets.

“Management feels that there is still some room to increase credit to more normalised levels,” the firm said, noting that trade receivables had come down to S$140 million from more than $1 billion in 2014.

Nomura said Genting Singapore’s rolling chip volume gained 24 percent in the first nine months of this year, boosting its market share to 48 percent from 37 percent a year earlier. For the full year, it sees VIP roll up 19 percent.

However, the outlook for the mass sector is not as positive.

“The mass business is likely to remain flattish, as the grind segment is facing competition from the regional mass markets like Cambodia and Philippines, which can offer cheaper rooms than Singapore and also more complementary services.”

Nomura sees the mass drop up 10 percent in the year to end September, with a market share of 35 percent, compared with 41 percent a year earlier.