Sands China Ltd is working on refreshing its hotel room product at The Venetian Macao (pictured) and creating “additional luxurious suite product,” with a goal of completing the work by the end of 2027, says Patrick Dumont, chairman and chief executive of the parent, Las Vegas Sands Corp.
He was speaking on Wednesday’s call to discuss first-quarter earnings for the United States-based group, which also runs the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) casino complex in Singapore.
Mr Dumont stated of the Macau operation: “We are focused on the highest return projects to increase cash flow over the next three years.
“We’ll begin with The Venetian [Macao]… work is already in progress with refreshed room product beginning to come into service in the third quarter of 2026. Additional luxurious suite product and a total product refresh is targeted to be completed by the end of 2027.”
The group CEO added, referring to other hotel revamps in other parts of Sands China’s Cotai property portfolio: “The meaningful patron growth we have seen in The Londoner [Macao] and Grand suites of the Four Seasons provides support for these [additional] investments.”
Mr Dumont stated: “It’s important to note that the work we envision will not create significant disruption throughout the portfolio. The scale of our portfolio will allow us to serve customers and other properties and elsewhere in each resort while work is in progress.”
A slide included in the parent’s first-quarter earnings deck, indicated Sands China had 10,540 rooms and suites in the Cotai casino district, or circa 42 percent of the room inventory offered by the city’s six gaming concessionaires in Cotai.
Grant Chum Kwan Lock, chief executive and president of Sands China, stated on the call that the firm would “deliver new inventory progressively” at The Venetian Macao “starting in the second half of this year”.
He added: “The standard suites will start coming back and then progressively work our way towards the high end suites and the villas into 2027. And then the entire project should finish by the end of 2027 or early 2028.”
Mr Dumont said the group was maintaining a target of reaching US$700 million in quarterly earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) in its Macau operations, compared to the first quarter’s US$633 million, and expected the Macau business growth to be “primarily driven” by the premium segment.
The CEO stated: “Since implementing the recent changes to our reinvestment programmes, implementing meaningful improvements in the service pillar of our strategy at Macau will be critical to realising additional growth and securing our long-term success.”
He added: “We do expect margins to improve over time as we grow revenue in the lower end of the premium segment and in the non-premium segment, where the scale of our hotel inventory gives us natural advantages as we improve our service levels and further refine our reinvestment strategies.”
MBS extension project
Discussing the Singapore operation, Mr Dumont said he would like to see the US$8-billion extension to Marina Bay Sands open “tomorrow”.
Earlier the firm had reported Singapore first-quarter net revenues rising to nearly US$1.49 billion, from US$1.16 billion a year earlier. Marina Bay Sands recorded adjusted property EBITDA of US$788 million for the reporting period, 30.3-percent higher than in the prior-year period.
Mentioning the importance of serving upmarket tourists at Marina Bay Sands, and the revamp work the firm had already done on the existing hotel accommodation, the group CEO stated: “We went from 132 suites to 770 and we need more capacity.”
Mr Dumont said that while the expansion “will not be focused solely on VIP [gaming] patrons, it’s really going to be for all the high value tourists that we have coming into our into our building.”
According to the proposal, the extension will contain casino space as well as a fourth hotel tower, though Mr Dumont pledged it would have “an unbelievable entertainment component which we believe will also appeal to the highest value tourists that we have”.
The executive stated that while the VIP gaming segment is “very competitive… across Asia,” it was also “very volatile”.
He added: “Our main driver of profitability at Marina Bay Sands is mass [table] win and slots.”
The quarterly presentation deck showed that subsequent to work starting in May last year on the pilings for the Marina Bay Sands extension and ground breaking in July that year, the project timetable is for completion by 2030. There is a provisional January 1, 2031, opening date, subject to Singapore government approval.
Mr Dumont said on the call that what he termed the “Marina Bay Sands growth story” is “about investment”.
He added: “The more we invest in high-quality assets, the better service levels we have, the more we’re going to differentiate the product that we have, and the more high-value visitation we’re going to get.”
(Updated 10.45am, April 23)
