Casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) has decided not to take part in a bidding process for up to three commercial casino licences in downstate New York, in the United States.
The decision was announced by Patrick Dumont, the group’s president and chief operating officer, on a conference call with investment analysts on Wednesday, following the firm’s first-quarter earnings announcement.
Las Vegas Sands is the parent of Macau casino operator Sands China Ltd, and also runs – via a subsidiary – the Marina Bay Sands casino complex in Singapore.
“We believe the highest and best use of our capital in the near term is to purchase Las Vegas Sands’ and Sands China’s shares,” stated Mr Dumont. “Accordingly, Las Vegas Sands has decided not to bid for a casino license in New York,” he added.
In early 2023, Las Vegas Sands announced its intention to pursue the “development of a multi-billion-dollar flagship hospitality, entertainment and casino project on Long Island, New York”.
At the time, the company signed agreements “to purchase the long-term lease” of the site where the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum is located.
On Wednesday’s call, Mr Dumont said: “We strongly believe in the development opportunity for a land-based downstate casino licence in New York. We also continue to believe that the Nassau Coliseum site is the best location for that development opportunity and should be highly competitive in the New York casino licensing process.”
He added: “However, as we have previously stated, the company remains concerned about the impact of potential legalisation of iGaming on the overall market opportunity and project returns.”
The COO said Las Vegas Sands was “attempting to secure an agreement with a third party” that could eventually bid for a casino license in downstate New York using the Nassau Coliseum site.
“This [third party] would include those that may be able to address both land-based and digital markets in New York,” he noted.
“Our board has increased our share purchase authorisation to US$2 billion. We look forward to continuing to utilise the company’s share purchase programme to increase returns to shareholders in the future,” added Mr Dumont.
The group would continue to be “aggressive in the way that we buy back shares,” he added. “So, we view it as an opportunity and we’re going to continue to be active in the share purchase market for both Sands China and Las Vegas Sands.”
Mr Dumont is to take over as chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands in March next year, as Robert Goldstein is to exit from his current roles on March 1, 2026, as announced by the group last month. Mr Goldstein will take on a two-year advisory role to Las Vegas Sands up to March 2028.
In September, Las Vegas Sands increased its holding in the Macau unit to nearly 72 percent, from 71.02 percent.
In February, Hong Kong-listed Sands China declared a final dividend of HKD0.25 (US$0.032) per share for 2024, the firm’s first dividend in five years.
Londoner Macao comeback
On Wednesday’s call, Mr Goldstein said the full room inventory of The Londoner Macao complex, in Macau’s Cotai district, was now available.
“Despite the challenging macro environment, The Londoner [Macao] is now fully open,” stated the CEO. The renovated 2,405 rooms and suites at the complex are fully operational “as we prepare for the Golden Week in May,” he added.
China’s State Council has designated this year’s Labour Day holidays on the mainland – referred by commentators as the ‘May Golden Week’ – as May 1 to May 5.
Phase 2 of the transformation of The Londoner Macao has been described by the company as a US$1.2-billion investment. It included the renovation of the Sheraton and Conrad hotels, as well as the revamp of the Pacifica casino space, into the “Londoner Grand Casino”.
The Sheraton brand – which offered about 4,000 rooms – has been replaced with the accommodation branding “Londoner Grand”, part of The Luxury Collection Hotels & Resorts stable.
Mr Goldstein said on Wednesday: “We expect this asset to elevate our performance. Our focus is on improving our revenue and cash flow across the portfolio.”
Also on the call, Grant Chum, chief executive and president of Sands China, said the major redevelopment and upgrading at The Londoner Macao was now “largely complete”.
“We’ll have a few more amenities [to be revamped], to add restaurants,” he stated.
Mr Chum added: “We will continue to reinvest back into the asset base because we need to upgrade and keep up with the competition, but it will be regular renovation where we’ll be taking modest amount of keys out at any one time.”
The firm’s management also said the group would use The Londoner Macao to drive an increase in the number of customers, as well as revenues and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). But it cautioned that the ramp-up of the complex would “take its course over the next 12 months”.
Mr Dumont stated: “We have the full strength of our portfolio [in Macau], we’re going to press very hard to continue to grow this business, recapture [market] share, recapture EBITDA share and grow revenue, which will expand our margin.”
Mr Chum acknowledged that the group’s results in Macau “were impacted by the fact that we lost market share both against the prior year and sequentially”.
“With the new assets coming online, we are looking to be competing harder for the revenues in a flat market, and we fully intend to compete with The Londoner Macao … [and] to improve performance at … the other existing properties,” he added.
