The Singapore-headquartered arm of Asian casino giant Genting Malaysia Berhad has announced that it will be reducing the salaries of its senior staff as a way to cut costs in light of the ‘massive disruption to the travel and tourism industries’ caused by the recent coronavirus outbreak.

Genting Singapore Limited used an official Tuesday filing (pdf) to detail that the pruning was part of a series of new cost control measures and are to involve the base salaries of its executive directors being decreased by 18%. The Singapore-listed firm also stated that its non-executive directors will see their annual pay decline by 15% with renumeration for all members of its ‘managerial staff’ set to drop by between 9% and 18%.

Singapore significant:

The operator behind Singapore’s giant Resorts World Sentosa integrated casino resort, Genting Singapore Limited moreover declared that it is to now encourage its workforce ‘to take no-pay leave and/or annual leave’ and put in place procedures to ‘streamline workflow’ and strengthen productivity.

Overcast outlook:

The Genting Malaysia Berhad subordinate proclaimed that it was ‘generally pessimistic’ about its financial prospects for the first half of the year but would be additionally initiating ‘stringent health and precautionary measures’ so as to ensure ‘the well-being of our employees and visitors’. The operator saw its profit for the whole of 2019 drop by some 9% year-on-year to approximately $476.4 million despite recording a 4% rise for the fourth quarter to slightly over $107.8 million.

Upcoming uncertainty:

Genting Singapore Limited finished off by pronouncing that its Singapore venue with its 160,000 sq ft casino had ‘experienced a significant decrease in visitor attendance and correspondingly revenues across all its facilities’ due to the imposition by local governments of coronavirus-related travel restrictions.

Read the filing from Genting Singapore Limited…

“While the extent of the impact on the group’s financial performance and operations for the full-year 2020 cannot be determined at this stage as the duration and extent of the spread of coronavirus is uncertain, the board wishes to issue a profit guidance note that the group expects its financial results to be significantly and adversely impacted for the first quarter ending on March 31 and the half-year ending on June 30 when compared to the corresponding periods in the previous year. Shareholders and investors are advised to exercise caution when dealing in shares of the company.”