Las Vegas Sands Corporation eyeing future Asian investments
A little over a week after inking deals to exit the American casino market and Las Vegas Sands Corporation has now reportedly announced that it will be turning its attention fully to Asia and possibly invest more cash into its facilities in Macau and Singapore.
According to a report from GGRAsia, the operator agreed arrangements worth $6.25 billion last week that are to see it offload its Sands Expo and Convention Center as well as the nearby The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino with its 3,000-room The Palazzo hotel. The source detailed that these understandings are destined to see the firm leave the United States’ land-based casino market altogether despite maintaining its global headquarters in Las Vegas.
Singapore speculation:
Patrick Dumont serves as the President and Chief Operating Officer for Las Vegas Sands Corporation and he reportedly used yesterday’s JP Morgan Gaming, Lodging, Restaurant and Leisure Management Access Forum to explain that his company is now keen on investing additional cash into Singapore where it already runs the 2,560-room Marina Bay Sands facility. The executive purportedly stated that this would be in addition to the around $3.3 billion the Nevada firm has already agreed to spend so as to bring a fourth hotel tower to the iconic development as part of conditions attached to its recent license renewal.
Ambitious aim:
Dumont reportedly told investors that he feels ‘very privileged to have reached an agreement’ to extend the operator’s casino license in Singapore until the end of 2030 and will now be looking to ‘invest significantly in the existing towers’ so as to ensure that the five-star Marina Bay Sands venue ‘remains competitive in the future.’
Macau makeovers:
Robert Goldstein (pictured), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Las Vegas Sands Corporation, also spoke at the event and reportedly proclaimed that his company is ‘eager to deploy capital and reinvest’ into Singapore and Macau as ‘the return on investment is higher’ than it would be for Las Vegas. As such and he purportedly predicted that officials in this latter jurisdiction will likely ask the operator ‘to spend more dollars, large capital dollars, to grow our business’ as a condition to keep the casino licenses for its existing The Venetian Macao, The Plaza Macao, Sands Macao, The Londoner Macao and The Parisian Macao properties, which are due to expire in June of 2022.
Goldstein reportedly proclaimed…
“We believe Macau is a big growth market for us, far beyond what we were doing previously, and we would really love to deploy more capital in that market. We don’t worry about Macau licence issues as we have full confidence in our Macau licence and I think we will continue to be in Macau for many decades to come.”
Supplementary shots:
For its part and Inside Asian Gaming reported that Goldstein moreover divulged that Las Vegas Sands Corporation is simultaneously looking into ‘more opportunities in other markets in Asia’ despite having recently pulled out of the race for one Japan’s coming integrated casino resort licenses. The 65-year-old boss purportedly furthermore declared that ‘there might be something else happening in Asia that is opportunistic’ while refusing to rule out the possibility that his firm may look into expanding into other United States markets such as New York and Texas or launching an online gaming and sportsbetting service.
