GGRAsia – Adelson got 62pct of LVS’ top exec payments for 2019

Adelson got 62pct of LVS’ top exec payments for 2019

Apr 02, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Sheldon Adelson (pictured in a file photo), the founder, chairman and chief executive of U.S.-based casino group Las Vegas Sands Corp, received 62.4 percent of the 2019 annual compensation assigned to the group’s top five executives, according to a proxy statement filed on Wednesday. The group’s 2019 aggregate annual compensation for the top five executives was nearly US$39.6 million, with Mr Adelson receiving nearly US$24.7 million, showed the statement.

Mr Adelson’s compensation included a US$12.5 million bonus – the maximum possible – for the group’s 2019 performance.

The chairman, his family members and related trusts, owned approximately 57 percent Las Vegas Sands’ outstanding common stock as of December 31, according to the group’s 2019 annual report, meaning his interests are also entitled to dividends paid by the group parent.

Las Vegas Sands is the parent of Macau casino operator Sands China Ltd.

Executive compensation at Las Vegas Sands consists of a base salary, and can include other elements such as a bonus, a stock award, stock option award, incentives of a non-equity nature, and other benefits such as healthcare insurance and personal-security provision.

Robert Goldstein, Las Vegas Sands’ president and chief operating officer, received a total annual compensation of just over US$8.3 million in 2019, compared to nearly US$24.7 million in 2018. The latter year’s total had been enlarged by a stock option award calculated at a fair value of nearly US$15.9 million.

The Wednesday filing stated that Mr Goldstein had been paid a bonus of US$3.4 million “with respect to the company’s 2019 performance, representing 100 percent of his target bonus opportunity”.

The other top executives that had their compensation outlined in the proxy filing – aside from Mr Adelson and Mr Goldstein – were Patrick Dumont, executive vice president and chief financial officer, with US$2.4 million in total, and who is also a son-in-law of Mr Adelson; Zachary Hudson, who recently joined as executive vice president, global general counsel and secretary, with nearly US$1.5 million; and Lawrence Jacobs, the departing executive holding those posts, with nearly US$2.7 million.

In a foreword to Wednesday’s proxy filing, Mr Adelson, 86, said that, while it was intended that the annual meeting on May 14 would be held in person at the Venetian casino resort in Las Vegas, “in the light of the evolving coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic,” it might prove necessary either to have “additional procedures or limitations” on entry to the meeting, or the firm might decide to hold it in a “virtual-only format over the Internet”.

It emerged on Wednesday that Nevada’s governor had ordered that the temporary closure of casinos in the state due to Covid-19 – due to expire on April 15 – be extended to April 30. The parent companies of three Macau operators – MGM China Holdings Ltd; Sands China; and Wynn Macau Ltd – are based in Nevada.