[HONG KONG] Genting Hong Kong, the cruise ship operator that halted all payments to creditors last year, dropped in the stock market on Monday after reporting a loss amid travel restrictions sparked by the pandemic.
Its shares slid 2.2 per cent as of 10.59am in Hong Kong, outpacing a 0.7 per cent decrease in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
The company, controlled by Malaysian tycoon Lim Kok Thay, reported a net loss of US$1.7 billion and net operating cash outflow of US$629 million in audited results for the year ended December, according to a stock exchange statement Sunday.
There are "material uncertainties which may cast significant doubt about the Group's ability to continue as a going concern," it said.
The Covid-19 crisis has presented an existential challenge to the cruise industry as revenue all but evaporated for global giants including Carnival Corp.
It's also forced dozens of peers in the aviation industry including Thai Airways International and Latam Airlines Group SA to restructure or seek bankruptcy.
While travel within some countries is recovering as vaccination rollouts gather pace, a return to pre-pandemic levels could still take years as the virus mutates and governments take different approaches to opening borders.
Genting Hong Kong said in the exchange filing that the group "is cautiously optimistic that the cruise industry will return to normalcy towards 2023."
Current liabilities at the company exceeded assets by US$3.3 billion and borrowings with principal of US$3.4 billion were in default as of the end of 2020, it said.
Cracks were already starting to show even before the cruise operator said in August that it was halting debt payments and asked creditors to form a steering committee to evaluate a planned restructuring proposal.
The Genting group had to shut casinos and resorts around the world as countries imposed lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Genting Hong Kong said earlier this month that its creditors and partners have given their formal written agreement for term sheets that outline arrangements for the company's debt and recapitalisation plan.
It remains "optimistic a holistic consensual solvent restructuring proposal can be implemented by the first half of 2021," it said in the statement on Sunday.
The coronavirus epidemic has forced the company to temporarily suspend almost all of its cruise operations and stopped or deferred the construction of ships in its pipeline, according to the statement.
"Further resumption of the cruise operations is dependent on the development of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the travel restriction requirement of different countries," it said.
The company said it may consider additional measures to improve its financial position including allotting new shares, raising liquidity through debt or equity sources, working with creditors to restructure debt, requests for debt holidays and the monetisation of non-core assets.
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