{"id":14114,"date":"2014-07-17T14:04:15","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T22:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14114"},"modified":"2014-07-17T14:04:15","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T22:04:15","slug":"paradox-at-sands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/paradox-at-sands\/","title":{"rendered":"Paradox at Sands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sands-Cotai-Central\"<\/a>Only in Macao<\/strong> could Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> report a 27% increase in profit and have it be called disappointing<\/a>. For the first time in four years, Macanese action dropped last month, down 4%. Dollars to doughnuts, those missing patacas will turn up in the robust sports-betting sphere<\/a>, which was expected to record heavy World Cup<\/strong> wagering. Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> was george enough to roll out a new bonus program for its employees but pushed them under the bus by partly blaming aforesaid bonuses for the lower-than-expected numbers. (Even so, industry-watchers expect Sands’ bonuses to force the other Macao concessionaires to follow suit or lose employees to Sheldon.)<\/p>\n

Waving off competition, “Adelson, speaking on a conference call on Wednesday, attributed a 6 percent drop in VIP revenues due to factors including tighter liquidity conditions in China<\/strong> and the lucrative junket system, a slowdown in the country’s real estate market and caution due to an ongoing anti-corruption campaign.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sands<\/a>Adelson was understandably defensive, even brittle<\/a>, noting that his numbers were up 12% in a market that was on up 5% in the quarter. Taking a now-familiar excursion onto Memory Lane, he said,\u00a0\u201cWhen I created my vision for the Cotai Strip<\/strong>, I was roundly criticized and belittled.\u00a0Today, the market now knows that the future of Macao is the Cotai Strip.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to $3.6 billion from Macao, Sands booked $805 million from Marina Bay Sands<\/strong> (+9% and doing 22% ROI) and even Venelazzo<\/strong> provided a, by contrast, small contribution: $353 million (+2%).<\/p>\n

None of this was enough to make Wall Street<\/strong>‘s day. J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong> led with, “Probably the best thing we can say about LVS\u2019s \"Sands<\/a>2Q14 results is that they are in the rearview mirror.” Greff said they missed “fairly low investor expectations” with soft VIP hold partly to blame. The new, premium-mass Dragon’s Palace<\/strong> at Sands Cotai Central<\/strong>\u00a0(above<\/em>) “did not contribute much.” The St. Regis<\/strong> hotel tower proceeds apace but Parisian<\/strong> is tied up in red tape, of which there is no shortage in Macao.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deutsche Bank<\/strong>‘s Carlo Santarelli<\/strong> “found limited silver linings” in the 2Q14 numbers. He was among those taken by surprise by the employee-retention bonuses. He characterized Venelazzo’s gambling revenues as “poor” and, noting recent good numbers on the Strip, concluded that this reflected well on MGM Resorts International<\/strong> instead.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t the best day in Sheldon Adelson’s life, but he’s seen worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only in Macao could Sheldon Adelson report a 27% increase in profit and have it be called disappointing. For the first time in four years, Macanese action dropped last month, down 4%. Dollars to doughnuts, those missing patacas will turn … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[62,11,12,108,74,9,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14115,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14114\/revisions\/14115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}