Las Vegas Sands gets nine proposals for US$1bil loan

Written on June 1, 2006 by a2zMacau

May 31, 2006 - SINGAPORE: Las Vegas Sands Corp. received proposals from at least nine banks to provide a US$1bil, one- year loan as the company plans financing to fund the development of Singapore's first casino-resort.

“We will pick one of those banks to provide the loan in order to bridge ourselves and give ourselves time to figure out exactly which market is the most efficient to tap for the funding,'' Bill Weidner, chief operating officer at Las Vegas Sands said here yesterday. “We could use our own cash. We don't necessarily want to sell shares because we think our equity is too valuable.''

Banks are benefiting from loan growth boosted by investments pouring into Asia by casino operators to tap the growing gaming market. Macau's gaming revenue surged more than 100% to US$5.76bil last year from 2002, according to Macau's Gaming Control Board and American Gaming Association. The Las Vegas Strip earned US$5.54bil in the first 11 months of 2005, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Asian property developers and casino operators got US$14.6bil of loans last year to finance acquisitions or reduce costs on existing debt, a 60% increase from 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Among the nine banks that have indicated their interest to provide the loan are Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, Barclays Plc, and Bank of Nova Scotia.

Las Vegas Sands will hire one of the nine banks for the one- year loan in the next one to two months to help pay the US$960mil deposit to the Singapore government by end-August, Weidner said.

The world's biggest casino-operator by market value is likely to finance the Singapore project, which will cost more than US$3.2bil, with 60% debt and 40% equity. – Bloomberg