Las Vegas Sands Corp., a leading developer and operator of integrated casino resorts reported its first quarter earnings Wednesday.
Company: Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS).
Revenue: $3.11billion, an increase of 14.3 percent, compared to the first quarter of 2016 when revenues were $2.72 billion.
Income: $578 million, an increase of 41.3 percent, compared to the $409 million from the same quarter in 2016.
Earnings per share: $0.60 per share compared to $0.40 for the same quarter last year.
Takeaways:
During a conference call with investors Wednesday to discuss 2017’s first-quarter earnings, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson said his company had reached an important milestone.
“Our Las Vegas operation delivered its best quarter since the first quarter of 2008,” Adelson said, a noteworthy comparison because 2008 is considered the onset of the Great Recession which hit Las Vegas and its tourist industry particularly hard.
Adelson also praised the results of the Sands’ Macau operations where he said EBITDA ( earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization) was 20 percent year over year.
“Macau is now growing again for three consecutive quarters,” he said. “Our strategy was to create a critical mass of interconnected resorts. And we now have almost 13,000 hotel rooms in four interconnected resorts. We have steadfast confidence in Macau and our Macau business.”
When asked about possible competition from expanded convention centers in Denver and San Francisco, Adelson said convention expansions are typically made to accommodate existing customers, not poach business from other cities.
Also, he said, neither city has the same attraction to tourists that Las Vegas has.
“These other cities cannot compete with Las Vegas,” Adelson said. “Denver is still Denver, and San Francisco is still San Francisco, period. And although they are two great cities, they’re not Las Vegas.”
Adelson also said Sands is in a strong position to expand to other markets that are in the midst of legalizing or considering legalizing casino resort-style gambling.
“LVS is by far ahead of the other competition as a candidate to get (Japanese) approval. It’s even to the point where a couple of people have said … that the Japanese government may allow us to have an interest in more than one integrated resort,” he said. “And of course, we would like that. We’ve been told we’re in the pole position in more than one location.”
He added that the Las Vegas Sands is also looking at Korea, Vietnam and other countries.
“We are still active in lobbying in Thailand, and we are also looking at South America. If something happens in New York, we’ll be a company there as well.”