A lack of manpower to fulfil growing demand is limiting Genting Singapore’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the company on Friday reporting strong revenue and profit increases in the three months to 30 June 2022.
Q2 revenue at Resorts World Sentosa jumped 26% year-on-year and 11% quarter-on-quarter to SG$349 million (US$255 million) – primarily led by non-gaming attractions which climbed 130% over the same period last year to SG$101 million (US$74 million). Gaming revenue was up 6% on 2Q21 and 3% on 1Q22 to SG$241 million (US$176 million).
Adjusted EBITDA was down 3% year-on-year but grew 15% over the March quarter to SG$144 million (US$105 million).
In its 2Q22 results announcement, Genting Singapore said the group has “benefited from pent-up demand and made good progress towards recovery in the first half of 2022,” despite international tourism visitation remaining significantly below pre-pandemic levels due to “limited flight capacity, extraordinarily high airfares and varying reopening protocols by our regional markets.”
However, the company later told analysts during its Q2 earnings call that manpower shortages have kept recovery subdued.
“As per management, the resort is currently running at limited capacity and is not able to meet the current demand fully, as the company is facing difficulties in hiring manpower for business operations,” said Nomura’s Tushar Mohata and Alpa Aggarwal
“Note that for the gaming business, new hires need to be licensed by the regulator as well. The company has been making efforts to hire aggressively in the past few months and aims to hire 1,600 new employees by end-2022.”
In the MICE space, Genting Singapore said recovery looks promising with more than 50 key conferences and corporate meetings, bringing more than 100,000 international and local delegates, already confirmed for the second half of 2022.
“We remain optimistic of our journey to building a resilient recovery of our business,” the company said.
“Our immediate concern is ongoing challenges in hiring sufficient number of skilled and talented management and rank and file team members.
“Our expansion project ‘RWS 2.0’ is progressing well. We are embarking on a make-over of our tourism offerings to enhance the integrated resort’s destination appeal to capitalise on the post-pandemic pent-up demand, in particular from the affluent regional market.
“With refreshed product offerings targeted at the premium market, we are confident that return on invested capital will deliver significant future growth.”
Genting Singapore has also announced the return of interim dividends with a dividend of 1 cent per share declared for 1H22.
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