SINGAPORE, March 5 — Visitor arrivals in Singapore are expected to rise 20-30 per cent to 11.5-12.5 million this year, helped by a pickup in the global economy and the draw of the city-state’s new casinos, the government said today.

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) CEO Aw Kah Peng told a tourism industry conference she expects tourism revenue to rise 41-50 per cent from 2009 to S$17.5-S$18.5 billion.

“This is hugely, hugely ambitious,” she acknowledged, but said she was hoping the final result could outperform the forecast.

In January, Singapore saw a 17.6 per cent rise in visitor arrivals from a year earlier. — Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR: RHB Research Institute has revised its FY10 forecasts downwards by 3.1% for Genting Singapore to push its projected contribution from the Universal Studios Singapore theme park back by 1.5 months to beginning May (from beginning March).

It said on Monday, March 8 that although the the Universal Studios Singapore theme park opens in mid-March, it is discounting the first six weeks of operations to be conservative, given the gradual ramping up of ticket sales and ongoing technical adjustments.

"We continue to highlight a potential for earnings upgrade in our forecasts via: (1) higher revenue per patron due to management's casino target market of "above average" patrons versus our assumption which is based on a VIP:mass split of 50:50; and (2) longer-than-expected casino monopoly in Singapore should Marina Bay Sands open later than April," it said.

It said there was no change to its S$1.35 fair value, based on blended average of EV/EBITDA (12 times FY11 based on regional average) and DCF methodologies. Maintain Outperform.

Universal Studios Singapore theme park is set to open on March 18. Following the sneak peek weeks during the Chinese New Year period, it will first open the park to team members of Resorts World Singapore (RWS) and their families on March 13 for one week as part of its staff appreciation perks, before opening to the public.

Ticket sales for the opening phase will begin on March 10 and same day tickets are not available, while there will be some tickets set aside for hotel guests on
a first-come-first-served basis during this soft opening period.

RHB Research said the management had highlighted however, that this was a progressive soft opening for Universal Studios Singapore theme park, not unlike the casino, which means that limited tickets will be sold and that it is possible that certain attractions may become temporarily unavailable as it continues its technical and creative adjustments during this period.

To compensate for this, ticket prices will be partially rebated by shopping and dining vouchers valid for use at the theme park. There was no mention as to how long this preview/soft openingh phase will last except to say that it will end when RWS is satisfied that the park is ready.

"Nevertheless, we understand that on the first day Universal Studios Singapore only intends to sell 3,000 tickets, versus its full capacity of 30,000, but would gradually ramp up the number of tickets sold over the next two to three months, with the jump between each stage of capacity to be relatively large (for eg: from 3,000 to 10,000 tickets)," it said.

Genting Singapore: HOLD; S$0.90; Bloomberg Code: GENS SP
Universal Studios To Pull In Crowd
Price Target: S$1.07
from DBS Vickers Research

USS to open on 18 March: RWS will open the Universal Studios Singapore
(USS) to the public on 18 Mar 2010, a slight delay from the early-Mar
2010 timeline indicated earlier.

Tickets will start selling on 9 Mar 2010. USS one-day passes range from
SGD32-72 (depending on categories ie adult/child/senior; weekday/weekend)
- cheapest amongst Universal Studios theme parks globally (Figure 2).
USS’ two-day passes range from SGD58-118, higher than Universal Studios
Hollywood’s due to the larger physical design and no of rides. USS’
annual passes, however, rank as the most expensive among Asian theme
parks (Figure 3), at SGD318-1098.

Although USS ticket price would be at a premium to Disneyland Hong Kong,
Ocean Park and Genting Highlands, USS offers an integrated resorts
concept and more rides. The Universal Studios brand has a strong proven
track record, with Universal Studios Japan ranked 9th most popular theme
park in the world, and third in Asia with 8.3m attendance in 2008 (11m in
its first year of operations).

New original rides to attract visitors. USS will consist of seven zones
ie Hollywood, New York, Sci-Fi City, Ancient Egypt, The Lost World, Far
Far Away and Madagascar. There will be 22 rides in the park and 16 of
them are original or specially designed for USS. We understand most of
the rides (>80%) will be opened in the first year (unlikely all on the
first day of launch) while the rest to be introduced progressively over
the next four years to attract repeat visitors. Among major highlights
are the dueling coaster (world’s tallest roller coaster) and Transformer
ride (world’s first, expected in 2011). USS is 70% covered, with an
eco-cooling system installed to create a more controlled environment.

Universal Studios has promised that this will be the only park it would
have in Southeast Asia for the next 30 years and expects to draw in >5m
visitors annually (14k/day). However, competition could intensify with
Universal Studios opening new themeparks in Dubai and Seoul, Korea
(likely Asia’s biggest Universal Studios) by 2012 and 2014 respectively.

Slow start seen for visitor arrivals. The launch of USS should help draw
in more mass visitors to RWS. Visitor arrivals have fallen short of
management’s expectation of 12m p.a. or 33k/day, having averaged only
~20k/day in the first two weeks of casino’s operations (during the peak
Chinese New Year celebration). RWS’ casino may need another 4-6 weeks to
fully ramp up to 560 tables and 1300 slots. So far, it has opened 270
tables (50 VIP, 220 mass).

USS’ opening will complete the launch of RWS’ Phase 1 while Phase 2 is
expected to complete by 2011. USS should provide RWS a more subtle
approach in its marketing and promotional activities in countries where
advertising on gaming is banned.

Maintain HOLD call. Although GENS has fallen 31% off its peak and
valuations have moved closer to sector average (26x 2011 PE, 14x
EV/EBITDA vs sector’s 17x and 12x respectively), we are still maintaining
our Hold call and sum-of-parts TP of S$1.07. Potential risk of further
earnings downgrade should RWS’ ramp up is slower than expected and Marina
Bay Sands (launching on 27 Apr 2010) wrestles more market share than
anticipated. We prefer Genting Bhd (Buy/ TP: RM8.80) for cheaper exposure
to Singapore IRs and resilient base earnings from Malaysian casino,
plantation and power segments.

I also same like them, I prefer Genting Bhd also...

hope it dun end up like LCL who are venturing into fishing at one time and failed.

remember the quote 'teach man fish' by Confucius Circa 551 - 479 
can guide la... but u gotta do all the nitty gritty hard work urself 
take ur share picks, then we can proceed from there, & alwzi do ur own due dilligence
no need stay awake late, just check positions in weekend & let it autotrade
now, how each of us handle the 'fish story' depends on our own 

1) Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will go out and buy expensive fishing equipment, stupid-looking clothes, a sports utility vehicle, travel 1,000 miles to the "hottest" fishing hole, and stand waist deep in cold water just so he can outsmart a fish. Average cost per fish: $395.68. Give a man a fish then!

2) Give Bill Gates a fish, and he’ll buy some tartar sauce to go with it. Teach Bill Gates to fish, and he’ll build a tartar sauce factory and eventually corner the market. The tartar sauce won’t be as good as some other tartar sauce, but people won’t mind, they’ll just think that that faint hint of mercury is how tartar sauce is supposed to taste

3) Give a man a fish? What fish? Trout? Scrod? Herring? Fresh-water? Salt-water? Pickled? Could you be more specific? Can one fish feed a man for an entire day? Depends on the fish I guess. We need clarification. And come to think of it -- what man? Who is this guy?

Now about this 'teaching a man to fish' nonsense. I don't have time to teach a man to fish. I have enough crap going on in my life. I have bills to pay. I don't need the increased responsibility of running a fishing class for grown-ass men who don't have fish.

There are a lot of tricks to fishing too. Selecting the right pole, the right reel, fishing line, hooks, bait. It's complicated! And he's going to have to put down a deposit in case he breaks something. Does he have a credit card? I'm not getting stuck with repairs. What am I, UNICEF? I should run a background check to make sure he isn't likely to cut my throat with a paring knife.

And I have to be honest; I don't know squat about fishing. I was raised in the city. My dad used to take me to museums, not lakes. We went fishing once. We didn't catch anything so we went to Vons. Grilled up some T-bone steaks instead.

But let's pretend I know how to fish. I'm a regular fishing expert. Where's this guy gonna go fishing? He's going to have to arrange for transportation. "...Teach a man to drive, get him to his destination his entire life." That's a little better. I can teach a man to drive. But what, I gotta rent him a car now too? Screw 'im!

About the best thing I can do for this guy is to teach him how to pick out a fish. You want a fresh fish - that's rule #1. It shouldn't smell. If it smells, the fish isn't fresh. Fresh fish should be kept on ice -- they go bad quickly. You also want a fish that's been cleaned, unless you already know how to clean it. Does this man know how to clean a fish? Oh, he knows how to clean a fish, but he doesn't know how to catch one? That's the trouble with today's educational system. They teach you half of what you need to know. That's not my problem.

This guy should become a vegetarian. In sixty-seconds I can teach him how to catch a celery.

freehold is good compare to SG props ...... industrial around 40years, retails (malls) 60 years, if not mistaken. very hard to find freehold props ..... ooh yes there is one which is weird got 999years leasehold one for me 999 yrs is as good as freehold liau 
that is very long time ago already woh ...... u dont looks that old to me 

True... Saizen almost went bust when their creditors are chasing at their back...  

---

Added on April 14, 2012, 1:00 pm
I knew that because... I subscribe to the IPO and the thing went under water from the day it open  Hard lesson for me...
Just left with the unit in deep loss now, even they are paying distribution now but mentally already written down to 0 liao...
Only keep an eye on it on and off, think if I am not mistaken, their ratio seems to be better one, not that heavy and it should be stable and moving up slowly (I think their business model should be ok, but not their financing model previously, think they got their lesson too ).

Unlike Suntec (also from IPO), that's alike to FD with higher interest & appreciating slowly...

Nowadays I pick REIT partly considering their gearing and loan terms too. IMHO...

brilliant consumer/investor 

Hehhe yeah, calculated risk taker gua - since no one can crunch or know all the risks + risks change as time runs on.
Sometimes i go through "paralysis through analysis", and sometimes "just having enough basic info and do it" 

Heheh - risks, some known, some unknown lor. No one living knows ALL the variables involved gua.
Aiya, crazy meh totally unknown - that's like worse than buying a lottery ticket (known risk = $3 lost VS 1 in 9999999 win big.. er.. +/- one 9 )

Marco Polo?
Nah, more like Groo - the Wanderer (Wiki - Groo the Wanderer)

Yup. Telcos FTW!

I invest in First REIT bcos of the aging population in Singapore.