Financial frustration for Sands China Limited

In Macau and the Sands China Limited subsidiary of American casino giant Las Vegas Sands Corporation has released its unaudited first-quarter financial results showing that it experienced a decline of 65.1% year-on-year in net revenues to $814 million.

The Hong Kong-listed firm used an official filing (pdf) to state that the drop in business was largely due to the impacts of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and led to its net profit for the three-month period plummeting by almost 130% year-on-year to a deficit of $166 million.

Extensive estate:

Sands China Limited is responsible for The Venetian Macao, The Plaza Macao, Sands Macao and The Parisian Macao properties and is currently in the middle of transforming its Sands Cotai Central venue into The Londoner Macao. The operator’s filing also showed that its first-quarter capital expenditure had totalled $320 million with some 75% of this having been spent in Macau although its net interest had decreased by just over 7% year-on-year to about $131 million.

Significant shortfalls:

In terms of its individual Macau casinos, the firm explained that The Parisian Macao had seen its net revenues for the first three months of 2020 drop by 68.9% year-on-year to $141 million as adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization fell by 101.8% to a deficit of $3 million. The update furthermore showed that it had been nearly as bad at the nearby Sands Macao as quarterly revenues dipped by a comparable 54.6% to $69 million and earnings tumbled by 102.5% to a shortfall of $1 million.

Compatriot concern:

The filing from Sands China moreover highlighted a fall of 64.5% year-on-year in first-quarter net revenues at The Venetian Macao to $315 million with the venue’s associated adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization crashing by 86.4% to around $49 million.

Sands China Limited additionally pronounced that coronavirus-related factors were mainly responsible for The Plaza Macao recording a 52.2% year-on-year nosedive in first-quarter net revenues to $107 million as the property’s associated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization diminished by 67.1% to reach a paltry $28 million. Finishing off the bad news and the operator detailed that the Sands Cotai Central had seen its revenues for the first three months of the year plunge by 70.5% to $170 million with the giant venue chalking up no earnings.

Operator optimism:

Sheldon Adelson (pictured) serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Las Vegas Sands Corporation and he used the fling to proclaim that his firm remains ‘extremely optimistic’ that its substantial ‘financial strength’ will enable it to weather the current downturn and emerge ‘with all of our promising future growth opportunities fully intact.’

Read a statement from Adelson…

“Our greatest priority during this difficult time remains our deep commitment to supporting our team members and to helping those in need in each of our local communities of Singapore, Macau and Las Vegas. We are fortunate that our financial strength will allow us to continue to execute our previously announced capital expenditure programs in both Macau and Singapore while continuing to pursue growth opportunities in new markets.”