Aggressive Resorts World to snatch conservative Marina Bay Sands’ market share

Genting is getting ready to pounce.

An aggressive Resorts World Sentosa is poised to benefit from Marina Bay Sands’ conservative stance on the VIP segment, a report by CIMB revealed today.

According to CIMB, MBS is making a conscious decision to be conservative on credit and incentive, while its mass business is restricted in its ability to grow because of the lack of rooms next year.

Meanwhile, RWS has the advantage of a new 500-room hotel in the Jurong Lake District. This new hotel and new investment opportunities around the region are potential key catalysts.

“We believe that Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) should continue to take market share in the VIP segment as MBS is making a conscious decision to be conservative on credit and incentives. Meanwhile MBS’s mass business is restricted in its ability to grow because of the lack of rooms and this could be a key differential next year, where RWS will have the advantage of a new 500-room hotel in the Jurong Lake District,” noted the report.

Here’s more from CIMB:

During the conference call, MBS disclosed that it made a conscious decision to focus on the profitability of the VIP business rather than generate rolling chip by extending more credit and favourable incentives/rebates. 

It highlighted that the headline VIP rolling chip numbers do not reflect the health of the VIP market, unlike Macau, which is currently affected by the anti-corruption measures in China. RWS could well report better VIP rolling chip numbers asthe trend over the past few quarters has been to take market share from MBS. 

GENS’s share price continues to reflect the volatility of its quarterly results. We believe any adverse reaction to results is an opportunity to accumulate.

Our investment theme for GENS is that its strong balance sheet will drive its key catalysts i.e. the new Jurong hotel next year, the US$2.2bn Jeju JV project that is scheduled to open in 2017 and, last but not least, potential opportunities in Japan.