Genting Malaysia stock rises on news of potential New York project

The convention and exhibition center will include hotel rooms and an expansion of its casino in the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, the Kuala Lumpur-based company said in a statement to the Malaysian stock exchange. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo yesterday called for replacing the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan with the new 3.8 million-square-foot complex.

“It is a long-term planning that they do to make sure that in the future, there will be more consistent flow of business and people there,” Low Yee Huap, head of research at Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd., said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur.

The investment will extend the Malaysian company’s reach in the U.S. after opening the New York City casino on October 28 and amid plans for a us$ 3.8 billion casino-and-hotel complex in Miami. The company, along with its parent Genting, also owns and operates gaming resorts in the U.K., Malaysia and Singapore.

Genting Malaysia climbed 0.8 percent to 3.91 ringgit as of 4:01 p.m. in Kuala Lumpur, set for its highest since December 5.

Cuomo said in his State of the State speech in Albany, the capital, that the Jacob Javits Center is “not competitive,” adding that the proposed Genting project will eclipse Chicago’s McCormick Place. The new development will include as many as 3,000 hotel rooms, he said.

Genting Malaysia’s New York unit is in talks with the state and expects a binding agreement by the end of November, it said in the statement.