SINGAPORE: The Singapore Tourism Board is in talks with Las Vegas Sands Corp, the developer of the city’s US$4 billion (RM14.28 billion) downtown casino-resort, to “facilitate the success” of the project.
The casino operator said last week it hired an investment bank to raise more capital with the help of billionaire chief executive officer Sheldon Adelson, driving shares lower. The stock has fallen 95% this year, compared with the 36% decline in the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index.
“The Singapore Tourism Board is monitoring the situation and is aware that the current uncertain economic climate may give rise to concerns,” the tourism board said in an emailed statement. “We are therefore working closely and are in dialogue with” Las Vegas Sands’s Singapore unit, Marina Bay Sands.
Casino cash flow is dwindling amid an economic slump and financial crisis, just as the Las Vegas-based casino operator undertakes its biggest expansion. The owner of the Venetian and Palazzo casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip is building a US$12 billion complex in Macau in addition to projects such as the US$800 million Sands Bethworks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Las Vegas Sands said in an emailed statement in Singapore it’s in a “quiet period” ahead of its earnings announcement, and reiterated that the development of its resort in the city-state “remains on track.”
Earlier this month, Adelson and his family invested US$475 million in the company to strengthen its capital and help prevent it from tripping a US loan covenant.
“We have an agreement with Marina Bay Sands that takes into account various eventualities but it is premature to speculate at this stage,” the Singapore Tourism Board said.
The Sands’s resort is scheduled to open late in 2009, while a unit of Genting Bhd, Asia’s biggest publicly traded casino operator, will open its gaming project on the resort island of Sentosa in 2010. Both companies will be the city’s only two casino operators for 10 years. — Bloomberg
No comments:
Post a Comment