New senior notes to boost Sands China liquidity

Jun 02, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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Macau casino operator Sands China Ltd plans to make a new offer of its senior notes to professional investors, the firm said in a Tuesday filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Funds raised would be used for “incremental liquidity and general corporate purposes,” it said. Barclays Capital Inc, Bank of America Securities Inc and Goldman Sachs and Co LLC have been appointed as joint book runners.

Completion of the proposed offering of the notes is “subject to market conditions and investor interest,” added the filing. It did not mention a target amount.

Pricing of the notes would be “determined through a book building exercise to be conducted by the joint book runners,” the filing noted.

The casino firm said it intended to seek a listing of the notes on the Hong Kong bourse, and had an “eligibility letter” from the stock exchange for the listing of the notes.

Sands China – controlled by United States-based firm Las Vegas Sands Corp – estimated in a Monday update on its April operations in Macau that its monthly loss had been US$180 million amid travel restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The firm’s monthly run-rate of operating costs were approximately US$110 million, with only US$9 million in revenue generated that month. It also had in Macau monthly development and maintenance capital expenditure accounting for a further US$65 million, and approximately US$25 million for interest expense.

JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd observed in a Monday memo the casino firm had US$2.41 billion of liquidity available as of May 29.

The brokerage said that as of that date Sands China appeared to have “ample liquidity to survive 12 months of a no-revenue environment,” even if it pursued its scheduled work on converting Sands Cotai Central to the Londoner Macao and work on the Four Seasons suites.

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