Gaming | Venetian leads Sands China revenue growth in Q3

Visitors cross a bridge in the Grand Canal Shoppes inside the Venetian Macao resort and casino

In its quarterly financial statement released yesterday, Sands China reported that its Macau property portfolio delivered adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) of USD754 million (HKD5.9 billion), representing an increase of 15.8 percent when compared to the same quarter in the previous year.

The rise was led by a bigger take at the gaming tables of The Venetian Macao, but dampened by the performance at The Parisian Macao. In the financial statement, the company wrote that “the strong financial performance of The Venetian Macao contributes to our unwavering confidence in the future of Macau.”

Analyzed by major Macau properties, The Venetian Macao saw its casino revenue expand 22.2 percent on annual basis to reach $689 million, while The Parisian Macao contracted 5.9 percent to $321 million. Sands Cotai Central and Sands Macao grew by 5.9 percent and 12.3 percent respectively to reach casino revenues of $321 million and $146 million respectively.

Meanwhile, total net revenues for Sands China increased 13 percent to $2.15 billion (HKD16.8 billion) in the third quarter, compared to $1.9 billion in the third quarter of 2017. Net income for the company also increased 12 percent to $454 million, compared to $403 million in the third quarter of last year.

“We are pleased to have delivered strong financial results in the quarter, led by continued growth in every market segment in Macau,” said Sheldon Adelson, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands, according to the financial report. “We remain supremely confident in the future opportunity in Macau, and have therefore elected to meaningfully increase the scale of our investments.”

Las Vegas Sands owns approximately 70 percent of the issued share capital of Sands China.

Jeju Air to add 11 new routes this year

Budget carrier Jeju Air Co. is planning to add 11 new international routes linking South Korea to various destinations across East Asia before the end of this year, the company said yesterday.

Among the new routes to Daegu, a municipal city in the southeast of Korea, will be Tokyo and Kagoshima in Japan, the Vietnamese coastal destinations of Nha Trang and Da Nang, as well as the Macau SAR. The Macau and Japan routes may start operating as early as this weekend, while the Vietnamese air links are scheduled to commence in December.

Additional international services will commence from Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province connecting Cebu in the Philippines and Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia, starting in mid-December. A daily service operated out of the airline’s hub at Incheon International Airport will soon fly daily to Chiang Mai in Thailand, the company said.

Meanwhile, the airline’s services from South Korea’s second most-populous city, Busan, to the Chinese mainland will be expanded to include a new Busan-Yantai route from next week. Other routes to Taipei and Hong Kong are also due to be launched before the end of the year.

According to Maeil Business Newspaper, the new international routes are expected to help Jeju Air pull ahead of its rival low-cost carriers in the region. The company said that its latest expansion will also benefit the balanced development of the airline sector in South Korea.