Genting in for Sentosa
Saturday, December 9th, 2006 | 4:15 am @ SK
Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister S Jayakumar announced that Genting has won the bid to build Singapore’s second casino resort, despite putting in lower bids compared to other 2 contenders.
The S$5.2 billion ($3.4 billion) resort consists of 1,830 hotel rooms, the world’s largest aquarium and a Universal Studios theme park, to open in 2010.
Genting has said it will fund the project through debt and internal resources. In October, the company arranged almost $1.5 billion of financing through five unidentified banks.
Genting expects the resort to generate S$15 billion a year in tourism spending, and plans to spend S$200 million a year to rejuvenate the project over 30 years. The company said the casino will generate as much as $2 billion in gaming revenue in the first year.
Universal Studios has signed a 30-year agreement to manage the theme-park for Genting. The company, which is a unit of General Electric Co., however doesn’t have an equity stake in the project.