American exit for Las Vegas Sands Corporation

American casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corporation has announced the signing of deals that are to see it offload its remaining trio of domestic properties for an aggregate consideration worth roughly $6.25 billion.

The Las Vegas-headquartered firm used an official press release to detail that the arrangements will involve The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and its 3,000-room The Palazzo hotel as well as the nearby Sands Expo and Convention Center being sold to affiliates of global alternative investments firm Apollo Global Management Incorporated and the Vici Properties Incorporated real estate investment trust spun off by Caesars Entertainment Incorporated in 2017.

Pricey particulars:

Las Vegas Sands Corporation explained that Apollo Global Management Incorporated has agreed to hand over approximately $1.05 billion in cash so as to acquire the operating liabilities and assets of its Las Vegas businesses subject to a range of post-closing adjustments while moreover taking over loan and credit facilities worth in the region of $1.2 billion. Similarly, it revealed that Vici Properties Incorporated is to pay around $4 billion in order to purchase the three venue’s real estate and associated resources.

Asian attention:

These agreements were unveiled a little over seven weeks after the death of the redoubtable Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Las Vegas Sands Corporation, Sheldon Adelson, at the age of 87. This formidable figure, who was subsequently replaced by Robert Goldstein (pictured), helped to establish the New York-listed firm in 1988 and was long known to be keen on exploiting its ever-growing prominence in Asia so as to increase revenues and profits that topped $13.74 billion and $3.51 billion respectively in 2019.

Domestic divestiture:

Las Vegas Sands Corporation is also responsible via its Sands China Limited subsidiary for Macau’s The Venetian Macao, The Plaza Macao, Sands Macao, The Londoner Macao and The Parisian Macao properties while furthermore running the Marina Bay Sands facility in Singapore. Closer to home and it had furthermore owned the giant Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem venue in Pennsylvania but offloaded this operation to the Wind Creek Hospitality enterprise of Alabama’s federally-recognized Poarch Band of Creek Indians in early-2019 as part of a $1.3 billion arrangement.

Fresh focus:

Goldstein declared that the Nevada sales represent ‘a new chapter in this company’s history’ and are to allow the operator to concentrate more consistently on Asia and ‘meaningful opportunities on a variety of fronts’, which could possibly encompass other casino markets in the United States such as those that may well soon appear in the heavily-populated state of New York. He moreover proclaimed that Las Vegas Sands Corporation is to remain committed to its venues in Macau and Singapore where it ‘will always look for ways to reinvest in our properties and those communities.’

Read a statement from Goldstein…

“Asia remains the backbone of this company and our developments in Macau and Singapore are the center of our attention. There are also potential development opportunities domestically where we believe significant capital investment will provide a substantial benefit to those jurisdictions while also producing very strong returns for the company.”