Genting Hong Kong suspends payments to creditors

[HONG KONG] Genting Hong Kong, a cruise ship operator, will temporarily suspend all payments to its creditors, which will likely result in events of defaults, it said in a stock exchange filing.

Its shares slid as much as 20 per cent on Thursday morning.

"Such events of default would give rise to a right for requisite creditors of the Group to declare that the financial indebtedness owed to them are immediately due and payable," the company said in a filing.

The company is part of the the Genting group, backed by Malaysian tycoon Lim Kok Thay. Earlier this year as the pandemic spread, coverage of passengers being quarantined on ships such as its World Dream created a public relations disaster.

As of July 31, the outstanding financial indebtedness of the group is at US$3.37 billion. The company's units have also failed to pay 3.7 million euros (S$6 million) for the financing of ships, it said in the filing.

The financial stress is evidence of further signs of strain companies in the region face as Covid-19 upends their businesses. The pandemic resulted in the suspension of sailing globally, according to Genting Hong Kong.

BLOOMBERG