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LAS VEGAS — As Las Vegas Sands Corp. built its casino in Bethlehem, Pa., which opens Friday, the economy and the company's massive debt cast a long shadow over its very survival.
Fewer gamblers were visiting its casinos and they were spending less money, driving the company to lay off workers in Las Vegas and China, scramble to repay loans and reconsider some of the ambitious development it is known for.
Led by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas Sands halted construction on a condominium tower on the Las Vegas Strip and suspended development on two sites in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau until further notice. That left two projects in the Las Vegas-based company's spotlight this year: a $5.4 billion casino-resort development in Singapore and the $743 million casino in Bethlehem.
The 124-acre Sands Bethlehem is opening without several elements originally planned: a 300-room hotel, a 200,000-square-foot shopping mall, a 50,000-square-foot event center, more restaurants and 2,000 more slot machines. The company has said it plans to build those when credit markets and economic conditions improve.
The company pushed ahead in Pennsylvania and Singapore because it expects higher returns from those two projects than from the ones it suspended, Sands said in regulatory filing last week.
Here are details on the company's finances.
— SANDS EARNINGS:
Sands lost $177.2 million in 2008, compared with net income of $116.7 million in 2007. In the first quarter of 2009, it lost $87.7 million, compared with a loss of $11.2 million the first three months of 2008.
Its revenue was $4.4 billion in 2008, compared with $2.95 billion in 2007.
— INVESTOR CONCERNS:
The company said in November that its outside accountants questioned whether it could survive indefinitely if it didn't turn things around. In response, Sands raised $2.1 billion in new capital, but the move exposed a rift between CEO Adelson and other executives that Adelson said was fixed with the departure of COO William Weidner. Adelson told investors in March that his company was stable, even if the investors were skeptical.
"Don't think that we have one foot in the pail of bankruptcy and the other on a banana peel in the middle of a hurricane," Adelson said. "That's not the case."
— COPING WITH DEBT:
Sands may buy back as much as $800 million of its debt, but only if that will help it save money. It had $10.3 billion in long-term debt as of March 31.
Adelson also is talking to four groups interested in buying into the company, he has said, including two construction firms that could help finance and resume construction on its Macau projects.
