Company announces interim dividend of 99 cents per share | Sheldon Adelson takes over as CEO of Sands China

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is taking over as chief executive officer of Sands China Ltd. from March 6, the company announced in a statement on Friday.
Robert Goldstein, chief operating officer of parent company Las Vegas Sands Corp., will be appointed interim president of Sands China and his position re-designated as executive director of the company. They will be replacing Edward Tracy, whose retirement had been announced earlier this month.
Mr Tracy, who is currently the president and chief executive officer of Sands China, will remain engaged by the company as a consultant from March 7, according to an announcement filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
“Business strategy has always been decided by Mr Adelson all this while, so in terms of strategy, I wouldn’t expect any change,” said Goh Shengyong, a Hong Kong-based gaming analyst at BNP Paribas, as quoted by Bloomberg. “It would be more of re-aligning and getting Macau and Singapore to report directly to Vegas.”
Mr Adelson has been chairman of the board of Las Vegas Sands, as well as being its chief executive officer and director since April 1988, when Las Vegas Sands was established in order to own and manage operations of the former Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Mr Adelson has extensive experience in the convention, trade, tour and travel business, the company said in a statement.
Robert Goldstein, 59, is currently a non-executive director of the company, also serving as president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands from January 2015. He served as Las Vegas Sands’ president of global gaming operations from 2011 to 2015. Before joining LVS in 1995, Mr Goldstein had been involved in casino-hotel business development in the United States and the Caribbean.
Sands China also announced on Friday an interim dividend of HKD0.99 per share, representing a 13.8 percent increase over the last year. A total of approximately HKD7.99 billion in capital will be returned to eligible shareholders through this dividend.  It is expected to be paid on February 27 this year, the company said in a statement.
Mr Tracy said that “2014 was a year of record earnings and a year of record service and quality awards. The combination of quantitative and qualitative achievements speaks to the strength of the integrated resort model and the teams that operate them.” CP