A Las Vegas Sands executive told Nevada gaming regulators Wednesday that the company’s convention business is geared for a strong showing in 2022 and 2023.
The Venetian Expo is hosting the AAPEX automotive aftermarket show this week and IMEX American, the largest meeting-industry trade show in the U.S. next week.
“We do continue to see certain meetings, conventions, and organizers delay events. We’ve seen that coming into the third and fourth quarters,” said Randy Hyzak, executive vice president and global chief financial officer. “Having said that, we have the AAPEX event at our property and we’re as robust as ever. Next year looks great and beyond 2022 is full.”
Brin Gibson, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said it’s great news that conventions were only delayed and not canceled. Las Vegas is in a better place than a year ago, because there wasn’t much foresight on what would happen with conventions going forward, he said. “The convention business still hasn’t come back for whatever reason, but gaming has, so it’s good to see that,” Gibson said.
As for the adjacent MSG Sphere under construction, Hyzak told Gibson about delays during the pandemic dealing with crews and materials “But if you’ve had a chance to drive by lately, we do look forward to that being completed over the course of late next year or early 2023.”
The 17,500-seat concert venue, a joint project with Madison Square Garden Entertainment, will cost $1.8 billion on completion.
In March, Las Vegas Sands entered into an agreement to sell its Las Vegas properties for $6.25 billion, a transaction now expected to close in the first quarter of 2022. VICI Properties will acquire the Venetian, Palazzo, Venetian Expo, and the land associated with MSG Sphere. The properties, with 7,100 hotel rooms, 225,000 square feet of casinos, and 2.3 million in convention space, will be leased to Apollo Global Management.
Hyzak told the Gaming Control Board about a strong third quarter in Las Vegas, one that ran ahead of 2019.
“Las Vegas Sands’ results continue to be impacted by the pandemic, especially in Asia. But here in Las Vegas, we forget the pandemic is going on outside of the masks we all wear,” Hyzak said. “The robustness of the local gaming economy, however, is not the same case in either Macau or Singapore. There continue to be restrictions in those markets, but we remain confident about the eventual recovery of both once Asia visitation restrictions end.”
Las Vegas Sands is pulling out of Las Vegas to focus on Asia and other opportunities.
The pandemic allowed the company to accelerate its Londoner Macau project, the British-themed reimaging of the Sands Cotai.
The pandemic delayed expansion at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore that Hyzak said they hope to accelerate next year. The plans call for adding a tower, arena, and convention space.
“We’re reassessing what makes sense, but we’ll be doing what we discussed previously and agreed upon, though there could be slight modifications,” Hyzak said.
As for Macau, its licenses are up for rebidding in 2022. Authorities have proposed daily government supervision of casinos and increased regulation, including a crackdown on capital flight and money transfers from players. Other proposals could increase ownership of local directors and reduce distribution of dividends.
“The concessions expire for us, as well as the other five concessionaires, in June of next year and the Macau government just completed a consultation period that ended on October 29th. We look forward to working with the government, whether it’s an extension that they put forward for a renewal process.”
When Gibson asked if Hyzak was breaking any news about the concession renewal, he said he wasn’t.
Hyzak talked about the difficulties of travel in Asia, with quarantine restrictions for some when returning from Macau. It’s also more difficult to obtain travel visas, which were issued before the pandemic from kiosks, but are now manually processed to limit their number.
