Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has described reports the nation is considering issuing a second casino license as a “lie”.
Anwar was asked about the issue by local media on Thursday following a Bloomberg report which claimed Malaysia may issue the second license as part of its efforts to revive the flagging fortunes of a US$100 billion residential development in Johor called Forest City. The report also claimed Malaysia’s Prime Minister had met with Genting Group Chairman and CEO Lim Kok Thay – whose Genting Highlands property currently holds Malaysia’s only casino license – and Berjaya Corp founder Vincent Tan to discuss the idea.
In response to questions about the reports at an event on Thursday, the prime Minister replied, “On the casino license, it is untrue. That’s a lie.”
Bloomberg’s report suggested that should any such move towards a second casino license be made, it could garner support from the royal family given that King Ibrahim Iskander holds a personal 20% stake in the Forest City joint venture.
However, Nomura analysts said a second license would have some negative impact for both Singapore’s casinos and for Genting Group as a whole – even if Genting was directly involved in the new development due to the need to invest in the casino’s development.
“In a scenario that Malaysia allow a Forest City casino and award the license to Genting, while Genting Singapore will be still negatively impacted, the net impact on Genting Malaysia and Genting Bhd will depend on which entity builds the casino, but the eventual impact on the group holdco Genting Bhd should be less negative, in our view,” Nomura said in a note.
UPDATE: Genting Malaysia and Berjaya deny supposed Forest City discussions
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