- Maintain BUY on Genting Malaysia Bhd (GenM) with an unchanged fair value of RM4.90/share. GenM’s FY15F earnings forecast is unchanged. GenM’s net profit is expected to improve by 17.2% in FY15F on the back of a 12% increase in hotel rooms at Resorts World Genting.

- We attended the launch of GenM’s brand ambassador and Horizon 50 yesterday. GenM has appointed Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh as its brand ambassador. Also Horizon 50, which is a showcase gallery of GenM’s history and future plans, will be opened to the public soon. Resorts World Genting will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year.

- The launch affirmed that GenM’s RM5bil GITP (Genting Integrated Tourism Plan) is on track. With GITP, GenM hopes to attract 26mil visitors by 2018F and 30mil visitors by 2020F compared with 20mil currently.

- There are a couple of elements under GITP. These include hotel rooms, a new theme park, a shopping mall and an additional cable car line.

- About 500 hotel rooms are expected to open by year-end while another 800 rooms are envisaged to be completed by mid-FY15F. We understand that GenM could be opening another 3,500 hotel rooms in five to seven years’ time.

- The shopping mall, which is called Sky Avenue, is expected to be completed in FY16F/FY17F. Sky Avenue will feature 165 units of F&B and retail outlets with net lettable area of 390,000 sq ft in total.

- 20th Century Fox World Theme Park is expected to attract more than three million visitors per year when it opens in FY16F. There will be more than 25 rides on an area of 25 acres. The theme park is estimated to cost almost RM1bil.

- The new cable car line is anticipated to improve accessibility to Resorts World Genting in the future. Skyway has the capacity to bring 4,000 to 7,200 people to Resorts World Genting every hour.

- Finally, the four winners of upstate casino licences in New York may be announced in the coming weeks. GenM submitted two bids in June 2014. These are the US$1.5bil Sterling Forest Resort and US$1.0bil Resorts World Hudson Valley projects.

- GenM has proposed to pay licensing fees of US$450mil for Sterling Forest Resort and US$120mil for Resorts World Hudson Valley, if it wins.

Source: AmeSecurities