Genting Singapore's prudent credit policy appears to have paid off, as the firm's net profit for the fiscal year 2011 crossed the S$1 billion mark.
The casino operator announced that net revenue hit S$3.22 billion in 2011, up from S$2.73 billion in 2010. Genting's bad debt provision increased to S$121.1 million from S$81.7 million a year ago.
"Investors have been asking us for a while about plans to return money to shareholders," said Tan Hee Teck, President and Chief Operating Officer of Genting Singapore and CEO of Resorts World Sentosa (RWS).
"We have not diverted from our growth strategy, but this is our way of saying thank you to our shareholders."
The company's flagship casino (pictured), reported total earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of S$398.8 million in the fourth quarter last year, with a margin of 52 percent. This was an increase from S$375.5 million in the third quarter and S$384.7 million from the same period in 2010.
"In the fourth quarter, VIP gaming segment revenue was in line with our expectations. . . . We had favourable VIP win percentage of 3.9 percent in the fourth quarter, which boosted gross gaming revenue," Tan said.
"We continued to be cautious about credit and the approach worked well: our Q4 receivables and bad debt provisions showed a marked improvement."
In addition, Genting said it would issue Singapore dollar-denominated perpetual subordinated capital securities, a type of bond with no maturity date.
"It may pay coupons forever, but these usually come with a feature for the issuer to call or redeem the bond after a certain period, e.g. after five years," said a spokeswoman from Genting. Related Stories:
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