Malaysian gaming may not recover until at least 2021
Travel bans and social distancing measures will injure the finances of local operators well into next year, analysts predict.
Malaysia.- Financial services company Maybank Kim Eng has predicted Malaysian gaming will not fully recover until at least 2021.
Although some casinos have been able to reopen in Malaysia, Maybank Kim Eng analyst Samuel Yin told Singapore’s The Business Times that even if the virus is contained soon, revenue will continue to suffer due to travel bans social distancing measures.
Yin said he didn’t expect to see a V-shaped recovery in gaming either in Malaysia or South Korea. He predicted that Malaysia’s biggest operator in the country, Genting Malaysia, will not see earnings recover to pre-pandemic levels in the next year, and that VIPs will probably focus on their own businesses instead of playing in local casinos.
Despite Genting casinos outside of Malaysia expected to reopen soon, Maybank predicts the group will see net losses of MYR573.7 million (US$133.9 million) in 2020, and net profit of MYR466.4 million (US$108 million) in 2021.
The analysis paints a bleaker picture than a recent report from Moody’s which predicted that markets with strong local consumer bases like Malaysia’s and Singapore’s could hope to recover faster than those that depend more on tourism.
