LV Sands Corp Takes Advantage of Improving Capital Markets

Macau - As Reported by Bloomberg.com: "Las Vegas Sands Corp., controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, plans to raise funds to restart its $12 billion casino-resort project in Macau after the
The Sands Macau  freeze in credit markets eased.

“There are obviously improving conditions in the capital and financial markets and we intend to take advantage of that as well as we can,” Las Vegas Sands’ Asia President Stephen Weaver said in an interview in Macau today. “I’m spending a lot of time talking to the capital markets and financiers.”

The casino operator last year stopped work on its 20,000-room complex of hotels and casinos on Macau’s Cotai Strip amid the seizing up of the credit markets, dwindling revenue and the risk of defaulting on some loans. Adelson has said he’s considering a bond sale and is looking at a “private or public” minority investment in the company’s Macau properties.

“Floating the company makes sense to me,” Gabriel Chan, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Credit Suisse Group, said in an interview in Macau today, citing Las Vegas Sands’ 76 percent share-price gain this year. “It’s very difficult for them to sell assets like malls because whoever buys has no control over the casino...”