LVS upbeat on strong recovery in Macau: Goldstein
Rob Goldstein, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS), said the group is seeing “strong” momentum in its Macau operations during the Chinese New Year (CNY) period, after authorities dropped most Covid-related travel restrictions.
“We are past the break-even point; we are now in the positive territory,” stated Goldstein, referring to the group’s performance during the week-long CNY holiday. “We are in very positive territory and keep moving upside,” he said as quoted by GGR Asia.
Goldstein revealed that customer volume was so high during the festive period, that “some patrons cannot get a seat” at table games. Tables games “are running at 95 percent to 100 percent capacity, and it’s the same on slots and electronic table games,” he added.
According to LVS’ CEO, “If things keep going as they are going, we will be in a very happy place in 2023, especially in the summer and the second half of the year, as normal travel patterns resume, Hong Kong gets back on speed.”
He also sees “a lot of growth potential” in mainland China.
His comments were made yesterday [Macau time] during a conference call with investment analysts following the firm’s announcement of last year’s fourth-quarter results.
LVS reports ‘narrowing’ losses in Q4
The parent of local company Sands China Limited, LVS continued to report net losses at the end of 2022 as shown by the fourth quarter (Q4) report.
Nonetheless, the Q4 report shows losses have been narrowing especially when compared year-on-year with 2021, thus showing signs of recovery.
With its Macau operations affected by travel restrictions, the company hopes for a recovery and good results for 2023.
“While travel restrictions and reduced visitation continued to impact our financial performance during the quarter, we remain confident in a robust recovery in travel and tourism spending across our markets and deeply enthusiastic about the opportunity to welcome more guests back to our properties throughout 2023 and in the years ahead,” said Robert G. Goldstein, chairman and chief executive officer of LVS. He noted the grant of a new concession for the upcoming 10 years, making the company “deeply confident in the future of Macau and consider Macau an ideal market for additional capital investment.”
The company showed a Q4 net revenue of USD1.12 billion (MOP9.04B), an increase of 10.8% from the same quarter in 2021.
Net losses from continuing operations in the fourth quarter of 2022 totaled USD269 million (MOP2.17B), less than the figure recorded y-o-y of USD315 million (MOP2.64B) in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Consolidated adjusted property EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) in Q4 2022 was USD222 million (MOP1.79B), some MOP234 million less than in the same quarter in 2021 (MOP2.03B).
Still, the consolidated hold-normalized adjusted property EBITDA increased from USD234 million (MOP1.89B) in Q4 2021, to USD329 million (MOP2.65B) in 2022.
The results account for the full-year 2022 operating loss of USD792 million (MOP6.39B), which represents an increase of MOP830 million when compared to 2021 (USD689 million or MOP5.56B) in 2021.
SCL saw a 31.7% decrease in total net revenues compared to the fourth quarter of 2021 to USD439 million (MOP3.54B), while the net loss was USD348 million (MOP2.81B), significantly higher than the MOP1.98B registered in the fourth quarter of 2021.
In general terms, SCL’s 2022 full-year net revenues shrank 44.2% compared y-o-y with the full year 2021.
