KUALA LUMPUR: Khazanah Nasional Bhd has denied a news report that the group has sold the discontinued KidZania Singapore to Sim Leisure Group Ltd for S$110,000 (RM380,000).
Khazanah clarified that Sim Leisure, the new operator of KidZania, had bought all non-movable assets from the liquidator and proceeded to negotiate a franchise licence with KidZania Mexico.
"The decision by Sim Leisure to restart KidZania in Singapore as per their announcement dated June 12, 2023 is unrelated to Destination Resorts and Hotels Sdn Bhd (DRH) or any of our subsidiaries.
"This is because Rakan Riang Pte Ltd (Rakan Riang)'s operation licence was terminated in June 2020," it said in a statement.
KidZania, which opened in July 2016, was operated by Rakan Riang, a subsidiary of DRH, formerly known as Themed Attractions Resorts & Hotels Sdn Bhd (TARH).
DRH is a subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional.
Despite best efforts by Rakan Riang to achieve a stable financial position for KidZania, the Covid-19 pandemic and economic effects that followed had dampened ticket sales and affected commercial partners which impacted its overall financial performance.
This led to a voluntary winding up and the appointment of a liquidator on June 11 2020, to recover and liquidate all the assets of Rakan Riang and to distribute the proceeds of sale to all creditors.
Khazanah added that the premises, land and space where KidZania Singapore operates is owned by a third party, not by DRH or any of its subsidiaries.
In a filing with the Singapore Exchange on June 12, Sim Leisure said it had also secured an agreement with Sentosa Development Corp to lease the premises in which the discontinued KidZania Singapore is situated.
In connection with the KidZania assets purchase, the company has approached KidZania de Mexico S.A. de C.V. and has on August 22 last year been granted the relevant permissions and written consent to use the KidZania intellectual property as well as any other proprietary elements in the KidZania Singapore Facility.
The company has also secured the exclusive licence to operate the KidZania Concept in Singapore.