Singapore Casino Bid Details Revealed

The Singapore horserace decides who will build the market’s second casino is heating up.

Both Genting International Ltd. and Kernzer International Holdings Ltd. debut their plans for their integrated resorts which will include such amazing gewgaws as the world’s largest aquarium and a Universal Studios theme park. There will also be myriad hotels and billions of dollars invested to build the final complex, which will be on Sentosa island.

The Kerzner bid, dubbed Atlantis Sentosa is proposed to be a US$3.3 billion resort modeled after its signature resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The property successfully merges an ocean theme with fine dining, hotels, attractions and casino gaming and has become one of the world’s most recognizable resorts.

"We are fully committed to the Sentosa integrated resort, and our commitment is underscored by our proposed investment of S$5.28 billion (US$3.34 billion)," said Sol Kerzner, chairman of Kerzner International on Monday. "The Singapore government has offered an exceptional opportunity to be part of a transformation that will further build tourism in Singapore and draw family visitors from around the world."

The Atlantis Sentosa will also include a water-theme park, seven million gallon water tank with whale sharks and the world's biggest jellyfish exhibit, four hotels with around 1,800 rooms and robotic fishes, plants and animals interspersed with living creatures to represent what Atlantis will be like in the year 3000, Kerzner said.

Malaysia’s Genting announced their bid is dubbed Resorts World at Sentosa and will contain the aforementioned Universal Studios theme park with 22 attractions, six hotels with more than 1,800 rooms in total, an oceanarium with a 6.6-million gallon lagoon containing as many as 700,000 aquatic animals, a water theme park and a multimedia maritime museum.

One of the hotels would be a Hard Rock Hotel, a brand that is seeing much success in the United States when tied to a resort or casino project. Its flagship Las Vegas property is one of its most popular and opened more than 10 years ago.

Additionally, Genting said about US $127 million would be reinvested in the property on an annual basis to ensure the property is kept in tip-top shape, while also remaining fresh and appealing and to take advantage of new technologies and trends.

Genting has also been able to secure close to US $1.5 billion from five banks for the project thus far, according to Bloomberg News. “The company’s fundamentals are very strong,” Ken Hu of First State Investments in Hong Kong told Bloomberg. “It has a low debt level and strong cash flows. The project may add risk to the bondholders but I am not wary of any potential downgrade by the rating companies because of the additional borrowing.”

The third company bidding for the Sentosa contract has so far been relatively tight lipped on the details of their project bid. A group led by Eigth Wonder has only said that the bid would cost about $3.5 billion to build and include six hotels. Four of the hotels would be Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide brands.

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A winner is to be announced by the end of the year.

In May, Las Vegas Sands Corp. was awarded the right to build a property in the Marina Bay District and will be constructed for about $3.6 billion. Called the Marina Bay Sands it is being developed by many of the same people who created The Venetian in Las Vegas.

The Marina Bay Sands will include a 2,500 room hotel, 1.2 million square feet of flexible meetings, incentive, convention and exhibition (MICE) space, one million square feet of retail space, three large entertainment venues and a casino. The casino will sit on a 50.9-acre waterfront site with a skyline view of city’s downtown. The resort is scheduled to open in 2009 and LVS will have the opportunity to run the casino for a minimum of 30 years.

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