New tax, low gambling spenders dampens Genting Malaysia’s Q1 revenue

New taxes and lower spending from high-rollers in Malaysia have sent Genting BHD’s 2016 first quarter profit crashing by 79 percent year-on-year.

Despite achieving an overall high volume of business, Genting BHD said in a disclosure to the Bursa Malaysia on Tuesday that its profit dropped from RM620.1million ($152 million) to RM 130.8 million ($31.9 million). Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) also dropped by 27 percent year-to-year to RM444.3 million ($108.9 million).

Genting attributed the revenue slump to foreign exchange losses of RM 138.8 million ($34.02 million) on the company’s U.S. dollar denominated assets as a result of the strengthening Malaysian ringgit against the greenback in the first quarter of 2016.

Company earnings, according to Genting, were also hit by a goods and services tax introduced in Malaysia in April 2015, as well as the lack of one-off gains that had boosted last year’s performance.