Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

November 1, 2006

Las Vegas Sands Beats 3Q Expectations

Posted by Hunter

Las Vegas Sands, owners of The Venetian and the Sands Macau, as well as the upcoming Palazzo and Venetian Macau, beat Wall Street estimates with their third quarter results.

Total revenues for the quarter were $553.2 million with a net income of $97.3 million. Estimates were clocking the company at about $525 million.

The Macau property was up over 20% and The Venetian in Las Vegas also saw gains in several areas.

http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20061101:MTFH67488_2006-11-01_22-45-23_N01442176&type=comktNews&rpc=44

MGM MIRAGE has their conference call in the morning.

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Comments

Read archived comments (9 so far)
November 1, 2006 6:53 PM Posted by Brian Fey

The even said on the call Palazzo is on schedule for opening in less than a year. I gotta see this one to believe it! The tower is only half way up yet! Wynn was topped out a full year before it opened.

November 1, 2006 6:56 PM Posted by Hunter

I tried to listen to the call but I had technical problems so I didn't hear it.

I've also been saying that I didn't think Palazzo was going to make it, mostly because I'm used to the high rise being completed well ahead of the low-rise stuff but as I'm looking at the latest Palazzo pictures, they low-rise stuff is really coming together so perhaps this one will be a bit different and will indeed make it to open in time... Late 2007 but perhaps a year from now?

They're close to topping out - by the end of the year... Then let's say they furnish and complete the low-rise - it could happen.

November 1, 2006 8:23 PM Posted by mike_ch

I also could not see the whole thing finished in a year, but they might not have revealed their full hand and could be planning to open in phases or something.

OT ntoe: I see the blog's photo album has a sense of humor. I have to admit I laughed.

November 2, 2006 6:59 AM Posted by detroit1051

LVS was very smart opening and then expanding Sands Macau while Cotai Strip is being developed. Sands Macau revenues grew 40% in the Quarter over last year. Weidner said Sands has over 21% of the table market in Macau even with the additional capacity there. In the call, Weidner said LVS is accelerating development on Cotai by moving up construction of two 1,500 room hotel towers to Phase 1 from Phase 2. By 2009, LVS and its hotel partners will operate 19,000 hotel rooms. That's unreal.
Slots, which have always been the poor cousin in Macau are gaining prominence. Daily slot win in Macau was up 12% to $235 per unit. Not too shabby. A press release said:
"The Venetian Macao is currently planned to have approximately 850 table games and 4,100 slot machines when it opens in 2007, and is designed to have a final capacity of approximately 1,150 table games and 7,000 slot machines."
Gaming revenue was down in Vegas, apparently due to a high roller who lost big last year and didn't come back this year. LVS is still talking about Palazzo opening in the third quarter of '07 to bring a total of 7,000 rooms to the property. Boy, that's a lot of rooms. Convention business better stay strong to fill them and help all the retail outlets.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Nov-02-Thu-2006/business/10555146.html

Speaking of 7,000 rooms, the new owner of the Tropicana, Columbia Sussex, announced plans for 8,000 rooms and a $2 Billion expenditure.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Nov-02-Thu-2006/business/10578104.html

I hope I can listen to the MGM and STN calls today. MGM did great, STN not so great.

November 2, 2006 11:17 AM Posted by motoman

Hm, makes sense to push up construction on Cotai Strip. Construction costs just keep climbing, and Adelson (ouch, it hurts to say this) has the track record there. These places make their money back so fast, any delay is a huge cost.

He will deserve credit for creating the "new Macau," unlike in Vegas where I don't know how he gets that rep. Really it belongs to the former Mandalay (nee CircusCircus) folks who did all those "theme" resorts that are now somewhat out of vogue. They really got that ball rolling.

November 2, 2006 11:52 AM Posted by Leonard Stern

Las Vegas Sands Corp.(LVS) is out performing and will continue to outpace Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) earning results by an extremely wide margin in both the Las Vegas and Macau markets. As reported by the financial press, LVS October 2006 average daily stock price actually CLIMBED 9.6% over September while WYNN's price was OFF by 0.24%! Way to go Steve, keep up the good work and you might just be able to at least demonstrate you are able to squeeze out even a semblance of profitability at that pace. Maybe you should have held off a little longer before buying that brand spanking-new Boeing Business Jet of yours you just got (which just happens to be the largest private corporate jet available in the world). Let's just hope you don't spend untold millions of dollars more by having your minion Roger Thomas design the interior of that thing as well. Just the thought of a "flying Wynn Las Vegas" replete with that ugly chocolate brown wall covering throughout is truly an unsettling vision indeed! LOL

November 3, 2006 1:48 AM Posted by Bert

Well have a look here what Pansey Ho has to say!

An excellent article by one of Australia�s top journalists Glenda Korporaal from The Australian, who recently interviewed Pansy Ho. I think Pansy is spot on, Macau�s casino market will become saturated as 40-50 casinos will be just too many. The fact remains that 95% are Chinese gamblers and some 35,000 mainland Chinese visit on daily border trips.

So they will have to find other ways to attract the punters and get them to stay longer, so they will need to create interesting activities to keep them coming. Mind you they are already trying with ventures such as Hard Rock Hotel, Elvis Presly Shows, Playboy Club, Planet Hollywood, but what about some popular Chinese concepts. Let�s face Hong Kong�s Disneyland is not faring all that well!

http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-casino/pansy-ho-you-are-so-right/

November 3, 2006 8:47 PM Posted by Bert

Well have a look here what Pansey Ho has to say!

An excellent article by one of Australia�s top journalists Glenda Korporaal from The Australian, who recently interviewed Pansy Ho. I think Pansy is spot on, Macau�s casino market will become saturated as 40-50 casinos will be just too many. The fact remains that 95% are Chinese gamblers and some 35,000 mainland Chinese visit on daily border trips.

So they will have to find other ways to attract the punters and get them to stay longer, so they will need to create interesting activities to keep them coming. Mind you they are already trying with ventures such as Hard Rock Hotel, Elvis Presly Shows, Playboy Club, Planet Hollywood, but what about some popular Chinese concepts. Let�s face Hong Kong�s Disneyland is not faring all that well!

http://macaudailyblog.com/macau-casino/pansy-ho-you-are-so-right/

November 13, 2006 6:18 PM Posted by detroit1051

William Weidner's LVS presentation at the G2E Investment Forum on 11/13/06.
Las Vegas Sands Presentation at G2E