Adelson says Sands considering Macau IPO

SINGAPORE — Cash strapped casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp. is considering an initial public offering of its Macau assets and the sale of peripheral businesses to raise $3.5 billion to $4.0 billion, chairman Sheldon Adelson said Wednesday.

The company — hit by a funding crunch as the financial crisis unfolded — needs about $2 billion to finish its latest Macau hotel and casino project, and hopes to have the financing in place by September, Adelson said.

“We’re actively, aggressively, sincerely looking at an IPO,” he said at a news conference in Singapore. “We’re talking to investors about putting in large amounts of equity and we’re also talking to banks about project financing.”

Adelson said Las Vegas Sands is also looking into the sale of stores in the company’s Venetian resort in Macau, as well as condos and retail in the neighboring Four Seasons property. The company also owns the Sands casino resort in Macau, and the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in Pennsylvania.

However, an IPO may hold more promise because it would be easier to price equity in the company rather than some of its noncore assets, said Aaron Fischer, Hong Kong-based head of Asian property and gaming research for CLSA.

A share offering might also attract investors due to the improving economic environment, a potential loosening of visa restrictions for Chinese tourists and more infrastructure work after Macau’s new leader takes office in December.

“I think there’s an appetite for the IPO in Hong Kong,” Fischer said. “If we look a little further out I think the Macau growth story will be back on track.”

In Singapore to visit the company’s $5.5 billion Marina Bay Sands casino and resort, Adelson said its opening will be delayed until early next year because of problems sourcing construction materials.

The Marina Bay Sands, one of two casinos being built in Singapore, is now expected to open in January or February, Adelson said Wednesday, instead of December as the company predicted earlier this year.

“We can’t control the flow of sand to make concrete, the availability of steel or the availability of labor,” he said at a news conference in Singapore.

The Singapore casino was one of the few projects Sands continued to work on after the company’s liquidity dried up amid the credit crisis and tumbling revenues at its Las Vegas properties. Its funding crisis forced it to suspend work on the Macau project last November and lay off as many as 11,000 workers.

Adelson declined to say if the company was cutting its revenue forecast for the Marina Bay Sands because of the weak global economy. He added that U.S. consumer spending was “in the trough and heading back up.”

“I intend to rain on the critics’ parade on the economy,” Adelson said. “What the economy is doing today doesn’t say what the economy will be doing in January or February.”

Singapore, facing its worst recession in decades, is hoping the casino will revive a tourism industry that’s been hit by the global economic meltdown.

Adelson said the company’s Venetian and Palazzo casinos in Las Vegas, where it last week laid off 194 workers, have had better-than-expected business so far this summer but didn’t provide figures.

“Our results in June were significantly higher than what we expected,” Adelson said. “Our projections for the summer, while slower than previous summers, are also somewhat ahead, and we’re adjusting our internal forecasts almost every week.”

AP Business Writer Jeremiah Marquez contributed to this report from Hong Kong.