GGRAsia – Londoner interior fix Dec, Macau EBITDA black MTD, says LVS

Londoner interior fix Dec, Macau EBITDA black MTD, says LVS

Oct 22, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

The Londoner Macao (pictured in a file photo), the themed rebranding for the Sands Cotai Central casino resort in Macau’s Cotai district, will be “completed from an interior perspective by December,” confirmed on Wednesday a senior executive of Las Vegas Sands Corp.

The comment by Rob Goldstein, president and chief operating officer of the United States-based parent of Sands China Ltd, came during the group’s third-quarter earnings call.

Last week Sands China had announced that the Four Seasons Hotel Macao’s new all-suite luxury accommodation tower had opened. The property is next door to the group’s Venetian Macao resort and across the road from the Londoner Macao.

The Four Seasons suites and the Londoner are part of the casino group’s declared US$2.2 billion additional investment in the Macau market.

Sheldon Adelson, the chairman and chief executive of the parent group, said during the call that the recently-opened new suites at Four Seasons had been “receiving great customer feedback since the [autumn] Golden Week,” a holiday period in China, at the beginning of October.

The recent stages of recovery in the Macau market had been “very encouraging” since the full resumption of applications for mainland China’s Individual Visit Scheme visas on September 23, said Mr Adelson.

“In Golden Week, we saw meaningful recovery across the different segments of our Macau operations,” the chairman stated.

“Importantly, business volumes in the premium mass segment enjoyed the most significant resurgence… We also saw strong recovery in our retail malls.”

In response to a question from an analyst, Mr Adelson confirmed the Macau operation recovery was “heading in right direction”.

Grant Chum, chief operating officer at Sands China, said during the call that to date in the month of October, the firm’s non-rolling drop per day – i.e. non-VIP play – in terms of gambling was US$20 million, “about 30 percent of last year’s level” for the same time of year.

“At this level of non-rolling drop, we are able to achieve, and are achieving, a slight positive EBITDA month-to-date (MTD), based on current cost structure, and the business mix,” Mr Chum said.