GENTING TO INVEST RM1b IN TWO OF ITS DIVISIONS

Gaming giant Genting Bhd will invest RM500 million each in its plantation and paper and packaging divisions over the next two years, said managing director Datuk Lim Kok Thay.    Lim said the company, which was also actively involved in its oil and gas explorations, expected "handsome returns" from its investments in all its divisions this year.  In the paper and packaging division, for instance, the company has bought four production lines for its corrugated carton box plants and Lim said there was "steep uptake for paper and corrugated carton boxes".  "During the first quarter of this year sales of carton boxes are expected to increase 25 per cent more than the previous year," he said.

He was speaking to reporters after the annual general meetings of Genting, Asiatic Development Bhd and Resorts World Bhd in Kuala Lumpur yesterday .  "We feel that things have bottomed out and we (Genting) can only move forward this year, " he said, adding that financial results this year should not be any less that its financial year.    Its group profit before tax declined by 41 per cent to RM908.7 million for the year ended Desc 31,1998 from RM1.19 billion previuosly.  On earnings from its plantation division, Lim categorised it as still attractive for the company to expand its operations.

Lim added that the company expected significant earnings from its oil and gas division by 2004.  "We will be spending RM60 million in expenditure in Indonesia and two other gas fields in Australia and Myanmar."  The company through its subsidiary Cairns Limited has a 47.37 per cent interest in Muturi PSC while BG Exploration and Production Limited holds the remaining interest in the block.

On the casino business outlook this year he said profit margins could go up if the company's management looked into reducing costs.  It was slightly affected when selective capital controls were enforced last year as many foreign visitors were unsure about the restrictions on taking winnings out of the country.  Lim, however, said Genting was not keen to take up casino management offers saying the returns were not attractive enough.  Last year its leisure and hospitality division, under Resorts World Bhd, invested in the enlarged share capital of Star Cruises Plc.  It now has a 27 per cent equity interest in the cruise operator.

Published in The New Straits Times dated  13th May 1999