While touting the record-setting performance at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, Las Vegas Sands executives said its properties in Macau underperformed and have already taken steps to regain market share.
Sands Wednesday reported second quarter adjusted earnings of $768 million for the iconic Singapore property, and said earnings could reach $2.5 billion for the full year. Mass gaming is up 97% since the second quarter of 2019 and is up more than 40% since the second quarter of 2024
“All the pieces are in place for this property to continue to perform,” said Chairman and CEO Rob Goldstein. ‘We are in the right place at the right time. Singapore is a very desirable destination, and our product is as good as it gets. It’s difficult to find superlatives to describe the magnitude of this result. It’s unprecedented for a single building to perform like this.”
Macau is a different story, with Goldstein saying the $566 million in EBITDA shows it underperformed.
“We are not aggressive enough as it relates to customer reinvestment,” Goldstein said. “We believed our buildings would be enough, but we were wrong so during the quarter we changed our approach to enable us to increase market share and EBITDA. We will, however, be market sensitive. Our assets remain the strongest in the world. The Londoner is open and moving towards our goal of $1 billion in annualized EBITDA. This new approach will create higher market share and EBITDA.”
Goldstein said Macau’s gaming revenue accelerated during the second quarter, which he called a “positive sign,” and said he’s confident the company can deliver improved results in the future.
President and Chief Operating Officer Patrick Dumont said Macau’s $566 million in EBITDA would have been $7 million lower but for a higher-than-expected hold. The margin would have been 31.3%, down 80 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2024, he said.
During the quarter, margins were 35.6% at the Venetian and Plaza, and 34% at the Four Seasons. It was 31.9% at the Londoner.
All 2,450 suites and rooms were available in the last two months of the second quarter, and that will help going forward, Dumont said.
“We expect growth in EBITDA as revenues grow and as we are using our scale and product advantages together with targeted reinvestment to better address every market segment,” Dumont said.
Grant Chum, CEO of Sands China, said they started in April to implement a more aggressive customer reinvestment program, and that they’re seeing some encouraging initial results and from that.
“As we get into May and June our performance did improve and we will continue to adjust to market conditions,” Chum said. “We are also looking for opportunities to perform better at smaller properties.”
Chum called the reception at the Londoner “phenomenal” and that they’re getting exceptional feedback from customers.
“This quarter is just the start,” Chum said. “All of the rooms were available as of late April, and we intend to yield better at Londoner Macau. That property has much further to go and then the rest of the portfolio we have to adjust our reinvestment levels according to the product and product mix. This process has only started, and you will see improvements in our results in May and June already.”
Mass gaming revenue rose 8% during the quarter, and Chum reiterated that they intend to drive better improvements and hope to recapture market share in the coming quarters.
“We’re not where we want to be in Macau,” Dumont added. “We feel like we made great investments, and we have great product, but we believe we can grow our EBITDA from here. We’re focused on it. We realize we have work to do in our refinement program. We think we have more things to do to be competitive, and we’re going to take some action. We think we have an approach that in the long run will create growth for us both from the revenue and EBITDA side.”
In Singapore, Dumont said margins hit 55.3% and that EBITDA would have been $107 milion lower if the hold went as expected.
“The record reflects a high quality investment and market-leading product and growth in high-value tourism,” Dumont said. “We still believe we are in the initial stages of realizing the benefit of our investment in Marina Bay Sands.”
