Gaming | Adelson shows ‘steadfast confidence in Macau’

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) posted a year-on-year increase of 41.3 percent in net income in the first quarter (USD578 million). The company’s revenue stood at USD3.11billion, an increase of 14.3 percent, compared to the first quarter of 2016 when revenues were USD2.72 billion.

A conference call with investors and LVS chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson was held on Wednesday to discuss the results.

“Our Las Vegas operation delivered its best quarter since the first quarter of 2008,” Adelson said. “Macau is now growing again for three consecutive quarters. Our strategy was to create a critical mass of interconnected resorts. And we now have almost 13,000 hotel rooms in four interconnected resorts. We have steadfast confidence in Macau and our Macau business.”

During the conference call, Adelson also addressed the process of applying for gaming licenses in Japan: “LVS is by far ahead of the other competition as a candidate to get [Japanese] approval. It’s even to the point where a couple of people have said … that the Japanese government may allow us to have an interest in more than one integrated resort.”

Separately, Melco Resorts & Entertainment yesterday announced that it will file its unaudited financial results for the first quarter of 2017 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, May 4, to be followed by a conference call on the same day at 8.30 a.m. Eastern Time (or 8.30 p.m. Hong Kong Time).

In New York, gaming shares of all Macau gaming operators registered gains, with the exception of SJM.

MGM: revenue up 7 percent

MGM China announced yesterday the selected unaudited financial data of the first quarter.  The gaming operator recorded a total revenue of HKD3.9 billion, an increase of 7 percent from the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA was up by 23 percent from a year ago to HKD1.2 billion. Property EBITDA margin for the quarter grew 412 basis points year on year to 31.4 percent. Mass business accounted for over 80 percent of the profit for the Group during the quarter.