Sands China Ltd., Asia’s biggest casino operator by market value, secured $1.75 billion of debt financing from a group of banks to resume building a resort in Macau, Chief Executive Officer Steve Jacobs said.

Sands China may sign agreements with seven main banks, including international and Chinese lenders, as soon as this week, Jacobs said an interview in Hong Kong today. The company will also spend about $500 million from its initial public offering in November on the resort in Macau, the only place in China where casinos are legal.

“We will be fully financed,” Jacobs said. “We’re starting.” The $2.24 billion project, occupying two sites on the Cotai Strip opposite the company’s Venetian Macao on the island of Coloane, will add 6,000 rooms to the 3,600 Sands China has in the city, he said.

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. stopped construction in Cotai in 2008 as credit markets froze and revenue growth slowed. Sands China has said it hopes to emulate its parent’s business model in the U.S., where non-gambling businesses, including conventions and retail, have outgrown its casino operations.

Sands China fell 2.5 percent to close at HK$11 in Hong Kong, compared with a decline of 1.4 percent in the benchmark Hang Seng index. The stock has risen 16.3 percent this year.

Profit Surge

Net income in the first quarter more than quadrupled to $110.5 million while sales rose 24 percent to $944 million, the company said in a statement to Hong Kong’s stock exchange today.

The expansion will include two casinos, 800,000 square feet of retail area and 800,000 square feet of meeting space, Jacobs said. Sands China will open most of the new resort as early as third quarter of next year, he said.

Macau’s government’s announced April 24 it started working on a proposed legislation to set employment ratios between non- resident and local workers. This proposed legislation isn’t likely to delay construction of Sands China’s expansion project, Jacobs said.

“I think we’ve had a long enough history and successful enough history with the government that as the project gets under way, we’ll find ways to get to the end point, which is the opening,” Jacobs said. “We’re embedded in such a heavy density of demand for our products.”

Sands China in 2007 opened the 3,000-room Venetian Macao, a casino resort featuring 100,000 square meters of exhibition and meeting space, a 15,000-seat arena and a shopping mall.

Macau’s casino revenue rose about 70 percent to more than 14.1 billion patacas ($1.8 billion) in April from a year ago, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported, citing data from the casino operators. Revenue rose 60 percent in the first four months to 55.1 billion patacas, according to Lusa.

The former Portuguese colony is the only place in China where casinos are legal.

Thanks To : BUSINESSWEEK

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