By Liza Lin

April 28 (Bloomberg) — Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson said the planned sale of the casino operator’s Macau malls and apartments may raise as much as $12 billion and recoup their construction costs.

“It will be like $12 billion if we add up all the apartments and all the retail in Macau,” including those in buildings still under construction, Adelson, the founder and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands, said in an interview in Singapore yesterday. The Las Vegas-based company may start selling the Macau assets within 2 1/2 years, he said.

Sands, which Adelson describes as “an Asian company with a presence in Las Vegas and the U.S.,” gets 73 percent of its revenue from Macau, the world’s largest gambling market. He was in Singapore yesterday to open the first phase of Marina Bay Sands, the city-state’s second casino, and raised his earnings forecast for the resort, saying the $5.5 billion invested in it will be recouped in five years.

Sands’ casino resort yesterday opened 963 of its 2,560 hotel rooms, the casino, the meeting and convention facilities, parts of its shopping mall and some restaurants. A grand opening party will be held June 23 when the second phase is unveiled, including a sky park, additional shops and more restaurants.

Asia will contribute 85 percent of revenue once the Singapore casino “ramps up,” said Adelson. Last year’s sales totaled $4.56 billion, with 27 percent coming from Las Vegas.

Asset Sales

The Macau assets Sands seeks to sell include the Four Seasons apartments and shopping areas in the Venetian Macau casino resort and in the Four Seasons hotel, Adelson said. The plan also includes selling condominiums at the St. Regis, where construction is resuming.

“That is our fundamental business model — we get our money back from the sale of non-core business assets,” he said.

Sands fell $1.37, or 5.2 percent, to $24.83 at 12:22 p.m. local time New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock had gained 75 percent this year through April 26. Sands China Ltd., the company’s Hong Kong-listed unit, rose 1.1 percent to HK$12.76 in trading yesterday.

Adelson, who is Sands’ controlling shareholder, said in December that selling the retail areas at the Four Seasons and the Venetian would raise enough money to pay Sands’ debt. The company has $12.2 billion of bonds and loans due from next year to 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The billionaire, who previously said the Singapore project would add more than $1 billion in annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, didn’t provide a new figure apart from saying he was raising his forecast. The return period compares with four years for the Macau project, which cost about half as much to build, Adelson said.

‘Grand Slam’

The Marina Bay Sands in Singapore will be a “grand slam home run,” Adelson said. “Asian people just love to gamble.”

Singapore aims to lure 17 million visitors and triple annual tourism revenue to S$30 billion ($22 billion) by 2015, helped by two casino resorts, Marina Bay Sands and Genting Bhd.’s Resorts World Sentosa.

The $4.7 billion development on Singapore’s Sentosa Island, which opened its casino Feb. 14, is operated by Genting Singapore Plc, which is controlled by Malaysia’s Genting. The Sentosa project also includes a Universal Studios theme park.

The Marina Bay Sands casino, which makes up about 3 percent of the 15,000 square-meter (161,000-square-foot) resort, has about 600 table games and more than 1,500 slot machines.

Black Lotus

The casino’s table games include baccarat, with a minimum bet of S$50 and maximum bet of S$50,000. A black Lotus sports car sits atop a platform in the middle of a circle of slot machines.

Asia has room for five to 10 cities like Las Vegas, Adelson said. The most likely countries to approve casinos in the region are Japan and Taiwan, he said.

Marina Bay Sands, built beside Singapore’s financial district, was scheduled to open at the end of last year. The resort includes three 55-floor hotel towers of rooms and suites topped with the sky park, a structure shaped like a ship.

Singapore announced in April 2005 it would allow casinos, overturning a ban in place since independence in 1965. Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa are the only two casino developments that have been awarded licenses.

Genting Singapore rose 1.2 percent to 87 Singapore cents yesterday. The stock has lost 33 percent this year after tripling last year. Genting Bhd. rose 0.45 percent to 6.73 ringgit in Kuala Lumpur.

Thanks To : BUSINESSWORK

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