In preparation for the LVS Q4 earnings release tomorrow, we’ve put together the pertinent forward looking commentary from LVS’s Q3 earnings release/call, subsequent conferences, and media interviews.
Post Earnings Commentary
MACAU
- [Sites 5 & 6] “The bottom line is that we’re satisfied that we’re going to have enough people.”
- [Galaxy Macau] "It has about 3,300 Macanese workers they’re going to let go between January and February. We have come to an agreement with them that we are going to pick up those workers.”
SINGAPORE
- “Our competitor, Genting, believes that junket reps will be approved. I don’t know whether or not they are going to be approved. I personally do not have a confidence level high enough that says it will be approved.”
- “We are now up to about 260, 270, I believe U.S. in ADR and we are at about 85% occupancy. So I think we ought to be able to do pushing 225 to 250 million in fully ramped up room income. Now we’re getting 600, 700 tour operated rooms a day. We are getting about 600, 700 FIT rooms a day and it’s going very well. I think that the rooms by the conventions are coming in strongly and steadily.”
VEGAS
- “We have 650,000 room nights booked for 2011.”
- “We’re seeing, particularly on the weekends, a pick up over the last several months and we’re seeing an increase in the ADRs on the weekends. And the group business, the conventions and the trade shows will be a catalyst for the midweek occupancy and the midweek ADR to rise.”
- “The attrition rate is still something that comes in, but right on the books, it’s very, very vibrant. The rate has moved up a little bit, not a lot, in groups because it is still pulled down by the competition for the group market. But I think the group business is back.”
- “On the table games side, honestly it’s driven primarily by the Asian business anyway. Our high-end business gets more important every day to us, as a percentage mix on the table games side. On the slot side, we’re going to reduce our offer somewhat and be more judicious and hope to fill more from the cash side.”
JAPAN
- “We expect that they are going to submit a draft of a gaming law to the Diet, the Japanese parliament, sometime this session, which is from I think January or February through June. And then they are supposed to have a vote on that before June.”
- Diet will convoke Jan 24 and will last 150 days
Q3 Conference Call
GENERAL COMMENTS
- [The month of October] “Adjusted EBITDA on pace to grow an additional 31%....Net revenue is projected to increase 12%.”
- “The capitalized interest number is around 32 million for this quarter. It will go up probably right through the 4Q of 2011.”
LAS VEGAS/BETHLEHEM
- “The airport is expanding with an additional runway, but it doesn’t really do us much good because unless you get more lift into Las Vegas, U.S. Air and Southwest and whatever have cut back some of their lift into Vegas, which has caused, I believe it’s something like 800,000 less passengers this year coming into the airport….McCarran can handle more traffic. It’s just a question of getting more planes in.”
- “LV ADR is lagging. We’re probably in the 180/190 range, so we’re not getting the 200 bucks back.”
SINGAPORE
- “I think our market share will be at least equal. We are focusing on the high-end of the market, I believe more so than what Genting is. Genting is doing a very good job at the mass end, by the way, but they’re just not experienced in granting credit, and they really want junket reps, and they’re sponsoring a number of them.”
- “Gross gaming revenue (tables) reached 8.4 million per day in October.”
- “Rolling volumes have increased 182% since May to reach 116.3 million per day in October. At that rate, we will roll 42 billion annually approximately.”
- “Gross gaming revenue from our mass tables and slots increased 49% since May to reach 3.2 million per day in October.”
- “Non-rolling drop increased 21% since May to 9.6 million per day in October.”
- “Slot handle increased 165% to reach 18.3 million per day in October.”
- “The slot win per unit per day increased 43% since May to reach $517 per unit per day so far in October.”
- “Our strong belief is that the appropriate measure of our financial performance is EBITDA.”
- “I can’t see margins going much more than 60%. We’d have to have a very consistent high end of the market return every single day to get beyond 60%.”
- “EBITDA up 40% from September to October.”
- “We expect the occupancies to go significantly higher towards the end of the year. On the retail, we’re still not completely open. All the retail with a possible exception of Louis Vuitton will be open by the end of the year, and it’s starting to ramp not as well as we would have thought in the early going because the construction is going on, but it’ll basically be finished so that will be a contributor in 2011 that we think significantly.”
- “VIP is pushing 60% of total gaming income….we’re going to make sure we have enough private gaming rooms."
- “We’ve got about a couple hundred million dollars of receivables outstanding, and we’ve got about a 12% reserve against that and no significant issues to really report.”
- “Singapores at casino stands about 38%.”
- “Our expectation is that we should be building up to roughly 300,000 room nights a year on MICE business as we get ramped up. Probably ‘12 we’ll get that. Probably we’ll be lower than that in ‘11.”
- “‘12 will be a very interesting year because I think ‘12 is where the retail business will really start to move dramatically because the subway system will open that runs right into the retail area. We’re working on some other transportation mechanisms now to get people in there to drive that up as well. So I think by the time ‘12 we should be in a situation where we’re getting the maximum out of the total facility, not counting the casino, of course, which will continue to grow.”
MACAU
- “I see the Plaza at the Four Seasons not equaling but starting to approach within a striking range the numbers we’re experiencing at Sands Macao.”
- [Sites 5 & 6] “We’re still looking at the end of the last quarter of ‘11 to open Phase 1.”
- “We’ve got a reserve or allowance for collection of about 42% against the gross casino accounts receivable in total. And if you take a look at that after kind of the immediate collections that come right after the end of the quarter, it’s almost 48%.”
- “We’re hoping to keep the direct business where it is. I think it’s somewhere between 25% to 30%.”
