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Global slowdown hurting major casino players
Following an auditor's warning that there was ‘substantial doubt' that the company could survive, in November the Las Vegas Sands corporation updated its development plans and raised capital of $2.1billion through the sale of stock and warrants.
President and Chief Operating Officer William Weidner announced that some of the company's developments in Las Vegas and Macau would be put on hold. Following a series of meetings with banks and the securing of new funds, work on the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort, the first casino in Singapore, is to continue broadly on schedule.
Commenting on the situation, Weidner said: "We feel very confident that this plan fully funds our development plans through the opening of Singapore...[it] gets us through what we anticipate to be a very rough 18 months ahead of us until we see recovery, somewhere in 2010 or 2011."
Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson and his family have invested around $1billion dollars in company since the end of September this year, and his personal fortune has plummeted by around $30 billion in twelve months during which the company's share price fell by around 95 percent. Adelson still retains a majority share Las Vegas Sands.
Meanwhile Trump and Harrah's both posted significant third-quarter losses, and it became clear that that expansion funded by loans is no longer the route to growth for the casino industry; the global slow down that has seen casino revenues fall looks set to continue.
"While we're hopeful the federal government's recent actions to restore order to the financial markets may lead to an eventual economic recovery, there is no certainty as to its timing," said Harrah's Chief Executive, Gary Loveman in a statement.
