{"id":1571,"date":"2021-10-21T11:24:57","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T18:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/?p=1571"},"modified":"2021-11-01T14:15:56","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T21:15:56","slug":"las-vegas-sands-desperately-seeking-visibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/news\/las-vegas-sands-desperately-seeking-visibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Sands: desperately seeking visibility"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Las Vegas Sands Q321<\/h3>\n<h4>The top line<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Revenue rose 92.2% YoY to $857m while adjusted EBITDA came in at $47m vs. a loss of $163m in Q320.<\/li>\n<li>As of the end of September LVS had $1.64bn of cash on its balance sheet and access to $3.93bn of available credit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The shape of a pear:<\/strong> On the call, CEO Rob Goldstein said the company remained \u201cconfident in the eventual recovery in Macau and Singapore\u201d but as it stands there is no visibility on timings. While in Singapore there are signs of an opening up of international travel from some key markets, in Macau the best the company could say was that its \u201cconsiderable\u201d investments \u201ccontinue to take shape\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Storm warning:<\/strong> Grant Chum, COO of Sands China, noted the impact of continuing Covid cases in China and local cases in Macau in September halting any progress towards reopening and impacting Golden Week in October. On the upside, Goldstein noted that vaccination rates in Asia were now above the US, adding that the recovery in Las Vegas was the \u201cblueprint\u201d for an Asian rebound, adding that it was \u201cinevitable\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWe just know when it does happen, it\u2019s going to be very powerful,\u201d Goldstein added. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be quite a storm of activity over there.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Old faithful:<\/strong> As for the ongoing concession renewal process and recent government interventions, Goldstein said he had \u201cfaith in the process\u201d. \u201cAfter two decades of being there, we\u2019ve never found the government to be not thoughtful,\u201d he added. Asked bluntly whether he could envision LVS not operating in Macau due to an adverse Chinese government, Goldstein said he couldn\u2019t see such a scenario playing out. \u201cI see no chance of that whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWe\u2019re assuming that the process will be fair and equal and we\u2019re also assuming that they want us to invest as well,\u201d said Goldstein. \u201cThe government wants to see growth in Macau.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Drop in the ocean: <\/strong>As for digital, COO Pat Dumont said the company was intent on \u201cinvesting for the future\u201d but offered little by way of further guidance. \u201cYou key some of the valuations that the market is giving to certain areas today,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think it\u2019s very compelling, especially for the long term.\u201d He indicated that early-stage investments would be the focus. Analysts at Deutsche Bank suggested LVS was unlikely to make a \u201cbig splash with an outsized acquisition\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cI don\u2019t know that we\u2019ll necessarily look at something that\u2019s transformational right away,\u201d Dumont added. \u201cThat\u2019s something that we may consider in the future depending on where things go and what market opportunity we see.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Challenge accepted: <\/strong>Jefferies noted that conditions remain challenging for LVS, suggesting the overall corporate and growth strategy in new markets and digital \u201cremain hard to value\u201d. Still, Macquarie suggested the company remains \u201cbest-positioned\u201d when it comes to the Macau and Singapore recoveries, as and when they happen.<\/p>\n<h3>Check out these additional articles on Earnings + More:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wagersearningsmore.substack.com\/p\/21-oct-lvs-desperately-seeking-visibility\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Penn National Gaming analyst update<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wagersearningsmore.substack.com\/p\/21-oct-lvs-desperately-seeking-visibility\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IGT analyst update<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Las Vegas Sands Q321 The top line Revenue rose 92.2% YoY to $857m while adjusted EBITDA came in at $47m vs. a loss of $163m in Q320. As of the end of September LVS had $1.64bn of cash on its balance sheet and access to $3.93bn of available credit. The shape of a pear: On [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[337,324],"tags":[614,612,613],"class_list":["post-1571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analyst-notes","category-news","tag-igt","tag-las-vegas-sands","tag-penn-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1573,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions\/1573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}