Las Vegas Sands Corp. traded lower Wednesday in post market trading, with revenue gains falling short of market expectations.
Net revenue was $2.76 billion compared to $2.54 billion in the prior-year quarter, a nearly 9% gain. That fell $60 million short of expectations, according to market consensus.
LVS stock traded at $39.25 after hours, below its 54-week low of $40.17. The stock is down more than $20 from its high on Aug. 1.
Chairman and CEO Rob Goldstein, however, sounded an optimistic note when speaking to Wall Street analysts on the second-quarter earnings call, pointing out that gaming revenue for Macau grew 24% year over year and mass gaming revenue grew 29%.
“We remain confident in the future growth in the Macau market. I believe the Macau market will grow gaming revenue that exceeds $30 billion next year and will continue to grow year after year,” Goldstein said.
Macau is a “deeply competitive” market, but Goldstein said their strategy of high quality and scale enables them to compete effectively and that they will continue to be the market leader in the years ahead.
“We will capture high-value high-margin tourism over the long term. We’re in a unique competitive position in terms of scale, quality, and diversity of product offerings. Upon completion of the second phase of The Londoner and Cotai arena, our product advantage will be more pronounced than ever.”
President and COO Patrick Dumont said Macau EBITDA was $561 million and if they had held as expected, it would have been $4 million higher. Margins at The Londoner were impacted by the renovation that took 1,500 rooms out of inventory.
The margin at the Venetian was 38.2% and expected margin improvement at the Venetian Cotai arena will return later this year as visitation to the market and growth in unrated play increase, Dumont said.
Margins at The Plaza and Four Seasons were 40%, Dumont said.
“We are deep into our Londoner renovation program. We plan the completion of the first tower by year-end 2024 and the second tower by May 2025,” Dumont said. “The Londoner Grand Casino has been closed since May and is scheduled to reopen in December. As these products come online by the end of 2024 and first half of 2025, our competitive position will be stronger than ever. We expect meaningful EBITDA growth and margin expansion in the future.”
Dumont said Sands is strong with its investments, leading the way with non-gaming amenities in Macau and innovating on the gaming side.
“The Venetian Macau did $262 million in EBITDA in the quarter at a 38.2% margin and it’s missing about half of its volume in unrated play,” Dumont said. “We like to believe we’re in a good spot. We’re competing effectively. We have great assets. We’re investing for the future, and when we’re done, we’ll have the newest and best products in the market. We feel very strong about the path we’re on. It’s just going to take a little time to get there.”
As for Singapore, Goldstein said they had a strong quarter despite ongoing disruption from construction at Marina Bay Sands. “As we complete the balance of our investment program, there will be considerable runway for growth.”
Marina Bay Sands’s EBITDA came in at $512 million, reflecting the impact of high-quality investments in market-leading products and growth in high-value tourism, Dumont said. If they held as expected in the rolling-play segment, their margins would have been 48% or 220 basis points higher than the second quarter of 2023.
While we have substantially completed the $1 billion refurbishment at Marina Bay Sands, we’re still in the initial stages of realizing the benefits of these new products,” Dumont said.
The next phase of the capital program at Marina Bay Sands is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2025.
Goldstein said tourists to Singapore are coming from all over Asia and the company hasn’t seen any slowdown from mainland China.
“Singapore keeps moving forward and I think you’ll see an important transition in the early part of the second quarter when the building is complete,” Goldstein said. “We’re playing the game with one hand behind our back right now. It’s the largest-earning EBITDA building in the history of gaming and it’s going to get stronger. Our goal is $2.5 billion out of Singapore and you’re going to see it in the coming years.”
When asked about getting a gaming license in New York and seeking opportunities in other markets, Dumont said Sands is ready for new developments. The company continues to look for opportunities to grow in new jurisdictions.
“We’re spending a lot of time in New York and Texas,” Dumont said. “We’ve been looking at Thailand. I think Thailand is a very interesting opportunity. The market there is very strong for different types of tourism, depending on the way it’s set up, and the opportunity that’s there in terms of structure could be very interesting for us. We love the market as a place to source customers and think the tourism quality there is quite high. If you go and visit, you’ll have a great experience and we’d love to be part of it. If Thailand becomes available, we’d be very interested. It’s early days yet and we’ve been spending time there, along with the rest of the industry, looking to see if we can be helpful to that process. We’re waiting to see what happens.”
