Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | December 2008 42 It seems highly unlikely that LVS or lawyers and accountants representing any potential creditors would simply be prepared to walk away from billions of dollars of infrastructure investment I t wasn’t long ago that Sheldon Adelson was singing the praises of the Macau government as one of the most investor- friendly his company had ever dealt with. Last month, however, his right-hand man William Weidner, the President and Chief Operating Officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS), hinted that the love-in is over. It follows the company’s suspension of new construction and laying off of up to 11,000 building workers on its Cotai site. On November 10th, LVS said it was suspending several projects in Macau and elsewhere, and had agreements to raise US$2.14 billion in new capital.The company said it would temporarily shut down sites five and six along Macau’s Cotai Strip™ including a Shangri-La/Traders hotel tower, a Sheraton hotel tower and three casinos— part of the company’s US$12 billion master plan to develop Cotai. The company said other projects, however, were still on track, including the US$3.6 billion Marina Bay Sands, scheduled to open in Singapore at the end of 2009. The announcement of the Macau project suspensions came after Sands said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that without fresh funding, come 31st December it would be in danger of breaching existing lending covenants and defaulting on US$5.2 billion in credit facilities secured by its Las Vegas operations. “Macau, because of what has happened, has kind of created for itself unfinished or semi-finished projects. I don’t think we’re alone in not completing developments,” Mr Weidner told journalists on the opening day The Honeymoon is Over Trying economic times test Las Vegas Sands Corp’s relationship with the Macau government