In preparation for LVS's 2Q earnings release tomorrow, we’ve put together the recent pertinent forward looking company commentary.

Sands plans to start Parcel 3 construction in Cotai by November 2012 (July 19)

GS CONFERENCE (June 4), BERNSTEIN CONFERENCE (May 30), and 1Q CONFERENCE CALL YOUTUBE (April 25)

 

MACAU               


  • The infrastructure of Macau continues to build, continues to get better and of course, we're dependent on the Chinese economic condition, which we feel is we'll have some level of softness from time to time, but overall is very well positioned for the future.”
  • I don't think on a mass market basis we've seen anything negative whatsoever. I think the conventional wisdom is that things are slowing in China, which affect us. We haven't seen any credit problems in junket. We haven't seen any real problems in our cage in terms of the requests for more money, but I think generally the competitive environment of Macau has said that things have slowed in May, but I wish I could give you a reason for it. I wish I could tell you that it's a trend. I don't know that it is and certainly not going to know it's a trend for another couple of months at least, but one must remember that May, even though it was down to only a 7.3% growth, was still the second best month in Macau's history for the gaming revenue.”
  • “None of the junkets we do business with have been crying the blues to us.”
  • “We're still getting requests for more VIP rooms in site 6, which we've allocated capital for to build and if we're not under construction now, we're all designed and ready to go to add an additional 60 to 70 tables in VIP on site 6.”
  • [Mass tables]We will be sitting with about 27% of the total table count in Macau by January of next year. We sit with about 24% of the table count now.”
  • [VIP table share] “About 20% of that table count is VIP.”
  • “The Sheraton, 4,000 room-Sheraton, which is two phases, will be open fully complete by the end of January and will pen 1,850 rooms, by the end of this September.”
  • “Right now the company, though, when you look at the amount of spending that we have remaining on Sands Cotai Central, it's about $1 billion this year, about $300 million next year and about maybe $200 million the year after that.”
  • “I think what you're seeing statistically is there has been a small drop in VIP gross for the whole Macau market. It was growing in the 30s% a month. It's now growing in the 20%s. Some of the sell side have predicted it'll grow a little bit less than that. However, if you look at the statistics over the last six months, our VIP share has improved.”
  • “We're already managing our costs. I was looking at the numbers just a couple of weeks ago and our costs are way down right away. I mean, first of all a lot of our costs at the operating level are in the gaming area itself. They automatically reduce if you don't have the volumes, and from a cost management standpoint we run the highest margins in Macau by far, and our company is built now as a high-margin company.”
  • “I think over the next five years, you should be talking somewhere between 10% and 15% growth a year.”
  • “Our plans to open the second phase, Phase IIA, I guess it's called, of Cotai Central by mid-September. And I think the last Phase will go to either December or January."
  • [Lot 6] “The government is committed to lenders to provide 400 tables. They gave us 200 tables for the opening the first of the two mass casinos. And they're going to give us, presumably, the second 200 tables when we go to open our second casino.”
  • “Lot 3 can hold 3,600 rooms.”
  • “Our mass business in Plaza is off the charts. We should get more tables in there.”
  • [SCC]  “We're fully occupied in the month of May. We opened, all the rooms are committed to. We had some... physical issues in the rooms and the hotel getting it done in April. It's fully operational except for one junket, on the third week of May, the last junket rolls in there of, the 12 that'll be there. We expect a full hit in the month of May and we feel very, very good the [inaudible] of operators we've assembled there.”
  • [Revamping VIP product at Venetain] “We'll start renovation shortly and I think you'll see a big change there.”

SINGAPORE

  • “We've gotten to maturity in less than two years. So from now on you're going to see gradual increases in the Singapore market mostly from the VIP scenario because our hotel is running at capacity now and has been for a year.”
  • [Customer demographics] “The great majority of these people appear to be in factories consumer goods and export businesses. And that's why they have money in the banks in Singapore and Hong Kong... which are easily accessible to them. It'd be hard to say what percentages, but I would say the percentage of real estate development people that we have is probably in the single digits would be my guess.”
  • “We also have mass market help from the new MRT station, the cruise terminal that will open and...  the Botanical Gardens that will open I think this November."
  • “Marina Bay Sands has become a really a significant retail destination. We have over 300 stores there driving traffic as well. So I think you'll see moderate... but consistent growth."
  • “Our hotel's running in the high 90%s, it's sold out most of the time on 2,500 keys at a very high rate.  The room [to grow] is really in the casino.  I would expect a high single-digit growth there over the next number of years.”
  • “We also have a plan to add some VIP rooms on the third tower, which we're waiting for approval on, which will give us some very high end play.”

OTHER

  • We'll go up to 30% to 35% equity in any property we do or any resort development we do. We will not go above that and we will go for development financing for the rest of that for the rest of those projects.”
  • “We're extremely comfortable with the 1.5x, but if we were to ... lever up to really develop projects...we're also comfortable the 2.5x. It's tough to envision today based upon our cash balance... the cash flow that we generate on an annual basis or even if we're in a development mode for us to kind of really increase above that 2.5x.”
  • “Our cash build, if you look at the analyst consensus numbers on this side, you can see that by the end of 2013, we'll be looking at about $6 billion of cash and about $8.5 billion in 2014."
  • “Our priority list is Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Asia, and we're looking at Toronto, which is getting very active, about a possible lakeside location for an integrated resort here in Canada.”
  • [Spain] “But we will make a decision probably on the location sometime this summer.  When that decision is made there are certain situations that have to go on with the land, et cetera, but more important there is legislation that could take anywhere from 6-7 months to pass with the grants and incentives that we require. So at the absolute earliest in Spain you're talking about maybe sometime in mid-2013 that you would actually start spending any really serious money.”
  • [ROI hurdle on Spain] “20% is our hurdle. Don't forget, that's 20% cash on cash, it's a higher return on equity obviously.”
  • “What happens in the FCPA investigation is that an outside law firm was hired by our audit committee as an independent firm to do the investigation. That investigation completes on the 30th of June. It's just – we're almost 30 days from finality, and that investigation gets turned over then to the Department of Justice, and we would expect that by some time towards the fall, the end of the year, that would conclude.”
  • Win percentage on VIP: “The 200-day moving average is 2.90% in Marina Bay Sands. Total Macao and Singapore properties 3.05% on a 200-day moving average…. 3.31%, total Macao.”