Las Vegas Sands is considering selling one of its Macau casinos as revenues plummet in the world’s biggest gaming market.

It plans to put the Sands Macao up for a bargain basement price of about US$1.3 billion (S$1.9 billion), after failing to sell its luxury shopping centres in the southern Chinese territory, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday, without naming sources.

The Post said Las Vegas Sands may sell the building and run the 21,274-sq m casino while paying the new landlord rent based on performance.

Talks kicked off last week as the company could not find a buyer for the shopping centres attached to the Venetian and Four Seasons resorts due to the high US$1 billion asking price.

‘It was kind of, ‘OK then, if you don’t want the malls, do you want the Sands?’ ‘ the Post quoted an unnamed source as saying.

The source confirmed that the gaming licence was not up for sale.

‘The Sands property is available,’ an unnamed banker told the Post. ‘But it may not sell. People will want the casino licence, which is a licence to print money.’

A spokesman for the US-based company declined to comment on a potential sale of the Sands Macao, the territory’s first foreign-owned casino.

But the company recently said several parties were interested in investing in its various Macau businesses.

Goldman Sachs, Las Vegas Sands’ financial adviser, has had informal talks about a sale and leaseback of the Sands Macao with property developers and private equity firms, sources say. Goldman declined to comment.

The Sands Macao opened in 2004, following the end of casino tycoon Stanley Ho’s four-decade monopoly on gaming in the enclave.

Las Vegas Sands famously made back its initial US$285 million investment in Sands Macao in 12 months as gamers poured into the city.

But the Sands Macao has since been eclipsed by newer properties like the Wynn Macau and Las Vegas Sands’ own 3,000-room Venetian resort.

Last November, Las Vegas Sands was forced to fire up to 11,000 mainly construction staff as it halted work at a new US$3.3 billion, 6,400-room resort close to the Venetian on Macau’s Cotai strip. It blamed a freezing of the global credit markets for the delay.

Macau, with massive casinos springing up over the past few years, has overtaken the Las Vegas Strip in terms of revenue. But income has been battered as gamblers tighten their belts amid the global slowdown, while visa restrictions placed by Beijing on Chinese visitors have also hit revenues.

Macau’s casinos had a dismal performance in the second half of last year, although the first three months of this year saw income rise for the first time in three quarters.

The Post said Las Vegas Sands had US$10.8 billion of long-term debt at the end of last year.

It has said it is on track to open its Singapore casino at the end of this year in a ‘fully-funded’ position.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• Las Vegas, The Macau Challenger Nevada -- or more specifically the Las Vegas Strip -- may not be the epicenter it once was to the gaming market. TheStreet users are split on this theory, with...
• Wynn Says Casino Base Could move to Macau Steve Wynn, one of the people who shaped modern Las Vegas, said Thursday that he would move his company's headquarters in as soon as four years to the Chinese gambling...
• Macau News April 2007 Wynn's Le Reve settlement Steve Wynn has settled an out of court settlement with Lloyd's of London over a Picasso painting he damaged. Repairs for the damaged painting, Le Reve,...

• Sands China bets on Japan Macau-based Sands China, the world's second-most valuable casino operator, has its sights on expanding into Japan, which it predicts could become Asian largest gambling market. In Macau, the firm's second-quarter...
• Round 4: Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open Championship Here is a look at the play by play and some of the highlights of the fourth round of the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open Championship! Chad Campbell...
• Sands Casino Bethlehem Suspensions Sands Casino Bethlehem suspensions A little less than a year of great openness , which was recognized figures of the spectacle of Las Vegas , the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem...