Las Vegas Sands swings to fourth-quarter loss

Chief Operating Officer William P Weidner said the company is focused on maximizing cash flow from its Las Vegas and Macau casinos, completing projects in Singapore and in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and trying to sell noncore assets.

The company expects to open a new casino resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in late May or early June, and said construction of its Singapore integrated resort is 40 per cent complete and should open between December 2009 and January 2010.

But Sands has suspended work on other projects until the operating and financing environments improve. Weidner added that Sands’ target for cost savings has been increased to us$ 250 million a year.

Last year, Sands’ billionaire chief executive Sheldon G Adelson loaned the company us$ 475 million so it could avoid breaking the terms of a us$ 5 billion credit facility. Sands reported a fourth-quarter net loss of us$ 111.3 million compared with year-earlier net income of us$ 39.9 million.

The latest results included a us$ 37.6 million write-down primarily related to assets associated with business development activities in Asia. Total revenue rose 7.7 per cent to us$ 1.19 billion, and revenue, minus promotional allowances, grew 4.3 per cent to us$ 1.09 billion.