One analyst said Friday Las Vegas Sands Corp. “remains in incredibly good hands” despite the cancer diagnosis facing company Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson.
The company said late Thursday that Adelson, 85, is being treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The side effects from the medication have kept the company’s founder and largest stockholder away from the office since before Christmas.
Stifel gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski said in research report that Las Vegas Sands, which operates casino-resorts in Las Vegas, Macau, Singapore and Pennsylvania, “has one of, if not the, deepest benches amongst the destination regional operators.”
He cited the experience of long-time company President Rob Goldstein.
Goldstein and CFO Patrick Dumont – Adelson’s son-in-law – handled Las Vegas Sands’ fourth quarter conference call on Jan. 23, which didn’t include Adelson, a normal participant. Goldstein said the CEO, was “a little bit under the weather. We met with him yesterday. He’s taking some medications making him a bit drowsy, so he decided this morning to take a rain check on this one.”
However, Las Vegas Sands revealed Adelson’s true diagnosis only after The Nevada Independent reported Thursday morning that the CEO – ranked No. 15 on the Forbes 400 list of billionaires with a net worth of $36.2 billion – was in poorer health than previously reported.
On Monday, during a hearing in Clark County District Court on whether Adelson would have to sit for a deposition in a long-running civil lawsuit, one of the attorneys representing Las Vegas Sands said he, “recently learned of the dire nature of Mr. Adelson’s condition, health, and that he had, in fact, not participated in the company proceedings in terms of being physically present in Las Vegas at the company on Las Vegas Boulevard, since approximately Christmas Day.”
Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese said in a statement Thursday the medication’s side effects “have restricted his availability to travel or keep regular office hours. Reese said Adelson “has been fulfilling his duties as chairman and CEO” and the company “expects he’ll return after he completes treatment.”
Questions were raised in the court case on whether or not Adelson was calling the shots at Las Vegas Sands, which produced $13.72 billion in revenues last year.
It is unclear whether Adelson will be able to testify in the civil lawsuit brought by Hong Kong businessman Richard Suen, who has been seeking compensation from the gaming giant since 2004 over the assistance he claims to have provided Adelson and the company in landing a lucrative concession to operate casinos in Macau in the early 2000s.
The case is expected to start Monday, but opening arguments and testimony may not begin until May 11.
Adelson testified in the two previous trials in 2008 and 2013 about his business dealings with Suen in the early 2000s. Suen won both cases and multimillion-dollar judgments, but the Nevada Supreme Court has twice remanded the case back to the District Court. Suen’s lawyers said they want to question Adelson about events since the 2013 trial, including the company’s efforts to land a casino project in Japan.
A day after news of Adelson’s condition became public, shares of Las Vegas Sands declined $1.03 or 1.68 percent to close Friday at $60.40 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
