By BBBB
The world’s largest casino operator by market value said on Monday fourth-quarter net income rose to us$ 113.6 million from us$ 110 million a year earlier.
Sands, which is expanding on several fronts in Asia, operates the Venetian resort and the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas. It also runs a casino in Macau, the only part of China where gambling is legal, which opened in May 2004 to provide another outlet for China’s many gamblers.
Total gambling revenue in the former Portuguese enclave has since surpassed that of the Las Vegas Strip, reaching us$ 7 billion last year. Sands’ fourth-quarter Macau operating income rose 6.5 percent to $99.4 million, while its Las Vegas operating income rose 73 percent to us$ 111.8 million.
“Macau looked a little bit light, but similarly the Venetian was off the charts. They played extremely lucky in Las Vegas this quarter,” said Robert LaFleur, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial.
Sands said it won 37 percent of money gambled at the Venetian’s table games in the fourth quarter, compared with an expected range of 20 percent to 22 percent. Total revenue for the quarter rose 27 percent to us$ 636.3 million. Analysts had expected us$ 551 million in revenue.
Excluding one-time items, Las Vegas Sands earned 37 cents a share. The average Wall Street estimate was 31 cents a share, as compiled by Reuters Estimates. The Venetian’s casino revenue rose 46.5 percent to us$ 154 million, hotel revenue rose 9.8 percent to $86.4 million, food and beverage revenue rose 17 percent to us$ 37.8 million, and convention and retail revenue rose 33 percent to us$ 11.1 million.
In Macau, where competitors Wynn Resorts and Galaxy Entertainment Group opened casinos last autumn, casino revenue rose 27 percent to us$ 343.3 million. “In Macau the numbers were respectable, it’s just that there is more competition. It is still a very strong market,” Susquehanna’s LaFleur said.
Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas-based company’s founder, chairman and CEO, said “we’ve held our own against the new competition and significantly increased our high-end market share.”
Sands expects to open a Venetian resort in Macau this summer and is developing a string of casino resorts in a part of Macau dubbed the Cotai Strip. It is also awaiting government approval for a leisure resort and convention complex on Hengqin Island, off China’s southern coast, which Sands likens to a “Chinese Riviera.”
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