拉斯維加斯金沙集團 (LVS) 2010 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon.

My name is Carrie, and I will be your conference operator today.

At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Las Vegas Sands Corporation fourth quarter earnings conference call.

(Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr.

Daniel Briggs.

Thank you, Mr.

Briggs, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, Operator.

Before I turn the call over to Mr.

Adelson, let me remind you that today's conference call will contain forward-looking statements that we are making under the Safe Harbor provisions of federal securities laws.

The Company's actual results could differ materially from the anticipated results in those forward-looking statements.

Please see today's press release under the caption Forward-Looking Statements for a discussion of risks that may affect our results.

In addition, we may discuss adjusted net income, adjusted diluted EPS and adjusted proper EBITDA, which are non-GAAP measures.

A definition and a reconciliation of each of these measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the press release.

Please note that this presentation is being recorded.

With that, let me introduce our Chairman, Mr.

Sheldon Adelson.

Thanks, Dan.

Thank you for joining us today, and happy Chinese New Year.

Kung hei fat choi to everyone.

I am sure each of you is busy looking over our press release, so let me take this opportunity to provide some commentary on yet another record-setting quarter for the Company, and then we will get to your questions.

I am very proud to say that in addition to the Company achieving another record quarter, we also just concluded the most successful year in our history.

Net revenue for 2010 was $6.85 billion, a 50% increase over the $4.56 billion achieved in 2009.

That is a 50% increase in gross revenue.

The Company -- net revenue, actually.

The Company's consolidated EBITDA for 2010 was in excess of $2.2 billion, compared to $1.09 billion in 2009, an increase of more than 100%, and a figure which strongly reflects our continued growth.

It would take too long to list the various successes the Company achieved this past year, but I would like to thank our Management team and each of our team members across the globe for the role they played in our success in 2010.

Our EBITDA has now increased in six consecutive quarters, and I am confident that growth will continue in 2011, a belief which is already validated by our results in the just-completed month of January.

Let me now make a couple of quick comments on this most recent quarter.

Net revenue for the fourth quarter was a record $2.02 billion, an increase of nearly 57%, compared to $1.28 billion in the same quarter a year ago.

Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was a record $739 million, up 141% from the same quarter in 2009, and as I noted before, the Company's consolidated EBITDA has now increased each quarter since the second quarter of 2009.

Quite a record.

With the opening of Marina Bay Sands as an obvious catalyst, Company-wide property EBITDA grew from $371 million in the first quarter of 2010, to $739 million in quarter four, a nearly 100% increase.

We saw significant EBITDA increases across our operations in 2010.

Our combined account properties, and this is all organic growth, increased EBITDA 47.5% compared to 2009.

In Las Vegas, EBITDA increased 19.7% for the year, while Sands Bethlehem saw it's EBITDA increased 144% in the last two quarters of 2010 , versus the last two quarters of 2009, which were the first two quarters -- first two complete quarters after the property opened.

EBITDA margins for the fourth quarter of 2010 increased 1,209 basis points to a record 36.7%, compared to 23.8% in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Margin increases in Macau, Las Vegas and Bethlehem, along with the high-margin Singapore operation, all contributed to increase.

Adjusted diluted EPS was $0.42 in the fourth quarter, up 2010 compared to just $0.03, a paltry $0.03, in the fourth quarter of '09.

Let me now take a few minutes -- by the way, what I want to say is that a fully diluted number would be 816 million shares, compared to the 600 million and about 80 million shares that are listed in some of the wire services.

So fully diluted brings it up to 800.

I don't have -- maybe Ken will give us this later -- how much it would be on the number of shares that are

The diluted number at the end of the quarter was 806, that's close to your 816.

Okay.

No.

What I want you to say is, in the Q&A period, I would like you to say what the earnings are per share on the 679 million shares that are indicated on the line of services summaries.

Let me now take a few minutes discussing our various operations, starting in Singapore.

During the 1st quarter of 2011, most of the major remaining elements of Marina Bay Sands will be launched., including the ArtScience Museum and the light and water show on the bay, as well as the opening of the Lion king.

These events will all drive additional visitation and produce increased earnings at the property.

We are leaving there next -- this coming week, the end of this coming week, to be there for the opening of the ArtScience Museum on the 17th of this month.

Our MICE business continues to grow, and in fact, the property was just name "Asia's Best MICE Hotel" by a leading convention and exhibition publication.

This has sparked a friendly rivalry between Marina Bay Sands, and the winner of this award for the previous two years, our own Venetian Macao.

What's important about this distinction is that it means Las Vegas Sands now owns the two best MICE facilities in what is still one of the fastest-growing regions in the world.

On a macro level in Singapore, thanks to the contribution to both IRs, visitor arrivals there have increased by more than 20% from 2009, and each month of the year, respectively, set a new record for visitor arrivals.

Let me say while Marina Bay Sands is really still in its infancy, we are extremely pleased with the property's results and its position in the market.

In 2003, the year before we opened the Sands Macau, Macau was a roughly a $3.5 billion gaming market.

The conventional wisdom was that someday it would even surpass Las Vegas to become the world's top gaming market.

Well, nobody, and I mean nobody, would have predicted that in the span of seven years, it would be four times the size of Las Vegas with $23.5 billion in 2010.

Early estimates on the size of the market in Singapore have clearly been conservative, as well.

The Singapore market is still emerging, and as we near the completion of our property's original master plan, which includes its own subway stop to open in 2012, the market is all but certain to grow.

As for our results this past quarter, we are extremely happy with the growth of our highest-margin mass gaming business in Singapore.

Overall, gross gaming revenue from our mass tables and slots increased 11.9% to $310 million, versus $277 million in the third quarter.

Non-rolling drop grew more than 5% from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, a run rate of 20%-plus annual growth.

Our slot handle was up an amazing 35% from the third quarter.

Our slot win per-unit per-day was up 12.5% sequentially, even though we increased capacity during the quarter.

Right now we are in the process of adding 300 more units because the market demands it.

Turning to the VIP statement now, if we annualized the results from the third and fourth quarter, our rolling win would exceed $1 billion.

Just from the rolling (inaudible) program.

But that is just right now, in the infancy of the market.

We are confident that number will grow as the market matures, just like Macau did.

We are confident that number will grow as the market matures, but we are still learning the seasonality of the business there.

We haven't even been through our first Chinese New Year in Singapore, which we think will be a huge positive catalyst for our rolling program.

We did see some softness in November, but that was book-ended by a strong golden week period and healthy volumes during the December holidays.

Remember, we are earning while we are learning in Singapore.

We are adding experienced (inaudible) casino executives to our sales team there, and we just recently enhanced our private aircraft capabilities in the region, allowing us to transport a higher volume of premium customers.

The potential in Singapore is clearly promising, especially when you remember these two things.

Singapore is located in the heart of the world's fastest growing region, and we only have one competitor with whom to share this exciting new market.

Turning to Macau, Sands China Ltd.

completed yet another record quarter.

Net revenues increased more than 13% to $1.1 billion, however property EBITDA for the quarter increased 36.7%, to $333 million, versus $243 million in 2009.

These are all same-store sales.

The topic of EBITDA -- and we touched on this a bit last quarter -- that continues to be a misplaced infatuation on gross gaming revenue in Macao.

While pundits scrambled to report our market share figures based upon gross gaming revenue, we believe EBITDA should be the true metric on which performance is judged.

That is where our focus lies, making it matter at the time bottom line.

For example, in the third quarter of 2010 -- that is because not everybody's Q4 numbers are out yet.

A percentage of market EBITDA was more than double that of SJM, who had 30% of the gross revenue, but less than 15% of the EBITDA.

In the third quarter of 2010 Wynn Macao and SJM accounted for roughly 44% of the market's gross gaming revenue, but only 35% of the market's EBITDA.

Sands China, on the other hand, had slightly less than 20% of the gross gaming revenue, but nearly as much EBITDA of those two competitors combined, out of our 34% of the market's total EBITDA.

Remember, you can't put gross gaming revenue in the bank.

Turning to operations in the US, our business here in Las Vegas remains steady.

We continue to see an increase in MICE bookings through 2011 and into 2012, and the launch of our exclusive marketing alliance with Intercontinental Hotel Group, it's set for the end of this quarter.

The Pennsylvania Sands Bethlehem set records for both EBITDA and EBITDA margin, and we are looking forward to additional opportunities to grow our business there, starting with the opening of our 300-room hotel this May.

We are also making significant progress on other pieces of our development plans at Bethlehem, and will be sharing additional detail in the weeks to come.

Finally, let me finish my prepared remarks by taking a few minutes to discuss our ongoing efforts to fill our development pipeline.

As many of you have heard me say, the Marina Bay Sands is the greatest reference site a development company could ever hope to have.

Since its opening, we've visited with government and tourism officials from a variety of countries at their request.

Mike Leven and I, along with other members of our development staff have traveled to several different country to discuss the possibility of developing a Marina Bay Sands-like integrated resort, or in some cases, a coat-tie strip-type development.

Our history of winning competitive bids and our track record of running highly successful IRs should make us the logical choice and most favored company for places such as Japan, Korea, or Taiwan, as those countries move close to approving integrated resorts.

We are also looking at other countries, in Europe, as an example, but these are the three countries in the Far East in which we are having conversation -- with whom we are having conversations.

Closer to home, we are following the process in Florida, Texas, and Massachusetts, and if the economics there provide a successful development opportunity, we will surely consider it.

We approach all future opportunities with the same development strategy.

That strategy is simple.

Realize a significant return on our investment and maximize value for the shareholders.

So with that, Mike, Rob and Ken are also here to answer your questions, so let's go to Q&A.

(Operator Instructions)

We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster.And, your first question comes from Janet Brashear, of Sanford C.

Bernstein.

Thank you.

I want to ask a little more about Macau, if I could.

You have high margins now and you've been growing them over time.

You are up to around the 32% level.

What do you think the potential is given that there's some wage pressure both from the government and competitors right now?

Hi, Janet, it's Mike.

Our Management team there has really done a extraordinary job at managing the cost structure against the revenues.

I think we have had some wage pressure and we have announced some wage increases this is year, but, in general, we think we have a pretty good handle on all our expenses.

We should get some more improvement in the EBITDA margin.

I don't think it is going to be spectacular, in terms of numbers, but we still have a way to go, I think there's some improvement we could still get.

I am very confident with the people there today, that they can very effectively manage their costs and there are other areas of opportunity we're looking at all the time.

So, wage pressure now is pretty much under control for another year at least, and I think it will stay pretty well because we've handled so far.

Mike, can you give us an update, as well, on Lot 3.

You have a time constraint of April 2013.

Do you think you will be able to do something to monetize that route within that timeframe, or do you think you will get an extension on that?

And also with the apartments that it sounded like the government was okay with you selling.

What has to happen for that process to begin?

We are still waiting for the final situation with the government on the apartments.

I think -- I feel very confident we will get something in this quarter, that there are some points of negotiation going on with that, but we are very positive.

On Site 3, you're correct, we do have a timeframe on Site 3.

Frankly, I think we're waiting to see how we do with five and six in terms of getting it open and getting the employees and facilities necessary to make it successful before we actually start Site 3.

We're quite confident though, now, should we want an extension on 3, we will be able to get it.

If not, we do own it, and the potential of monetizing it might be very well there for us.

Thank you.

Janet, this is Sheldon.

I wanted to point out that in the last day, we've received the document for some of the detail on the continued negotiation for the contract for monetization of the Four Seasons service departments, so this is not a dead issue.

It's very much alive.

Just yesterday we received a couple of pages of issues, and it looks like most of the substantive issues are completed and there was just a little tweaking left to do on the contract.

So, we're hopeful we will get that a lot sooner.

Great.

Four Seasons.

Could you comment a little more about that?Those results were a little less stellar than the other results.

There was a hold problem in the Plaza Casino at the Four Seasons, basically, that's really what it is.

And, in fact, that situation has reversed itself in the last few weeks.

It basically was a hold problem on the high end of the Plaza.

At one point.

Thanks very much.

You're welcome.

Your next question comes from Mark Strawn of Morgan Stanley.

Hi, guys.

You mentioned you're still learning the seasonality in Singapore.

Can you give us a sense of what those trends were like on the VIP side throughout the quarter, and into perhaps January, if possible?

And, I have a quick follow-up on Vegas.

Mark, it is Rob.

The -- obviously, Sheldon referenced in the opening remarks the strength of October and Golden Week, and October was very, very strong.

We certainly fell off in November, we saw some very soft weeks.

It picked up considerably, very strong Christmas and New Year's.

But, I think we're learning the market every day there.

We are just now experiencing our first Chinese New Year's.

The seasonality issue, it's a brand new building and it's also just a market where we are just getting our rooms open, all of our restaurants are [Inaudible] happening, Sheldon referenced the new opening of the restaurant facilities.

It's a new place.

I would look at the Macao numbers and chuckle, who would have thought we were heading for the $25 billion, $30 billion.

I think Singapore is going to be wonderful, it's already proven to be very, very strong in the mass segments, incredibly strong.

I think the seasonality, we're six or seven months into the building.

It will take some time to figure out how big is Chinese New Year's.

Talking to him last night, it's extraordinary there, the volumes.

We will keep learning and we'll keep growing, but I think the having 250 million or 300 million people a couple hours away by airline, it's hard to believe this market can't continue to really grow.

There sure was a blip in November, but we will wait and see how the first quarter pans out.

We're not sure of the seasonality of that.

What?

What I would like to point out to Janet and to the rest of the listeners, as Mike said, that the hold on the rolling chip volume, which is the majority activity at the Four Seasons Plaza Casino, was only 1.55%, and the adjusted property EBITDA for the quarter was 12.2%, whereby in 2009 it was 20.4%.

I can tell you that it is a volatile result there, but I could tell you that we've exceeded the full quarter 2009 $20 million just in January alone in 2011.

We've exceeded that $20 million at the Four Seasons.

But, the reason why it is volatile is because we have a limited number of junket reps there is, and we're bringing in new junket reps and we hope to make it less volatile, and, of course, more predictable.

Mark asked about January - Las Vegas --He asked about January, we were going to talk about January in Singapore, the seasonality.

Do I have any comment on the seasonality?

No, he asked about January, in particular, in Singapore.

Well, let's put it this way.

Our EBITDA is over $100 million in January.

Over.

And, hat I would like to say -- Ken, can we say what it is?

Sure.

Over could be $100 million and $1 or it could be $200 million.

But, it's a lot closer to $100 million.We are over $110 million for the month of January in Singapore, and when you talk about the annualized number, last January, I repeated this before at our shareholder's meeting, I said that I took the conservative approach and said that we would earn $1 billion in EBITDA, so, if we capitalize -- if we annualize what we did in January, we will already be about $1.3 billion in EBITDA for Singapore.

I wouldn't let one month's drop in rolling volume determine what the future is for Singapore.

We are in a very, very hot market that has not been addressed before.

The two properties will, as I said during my prepared remarks, will, we hope, not exceed, but it will follow the pattern of dramatic growth as we followed the pattern in Macao.

I remember a lot of people said in Macao, we could never do it, we didn't know the Chinese market, and we were the foreigner, et cetera.

We paid back our entire cost of the property in either 12 or 13 months.

Now, that's not going to happen here, but we are going to have a multi-billion result to which Singapore will be a substantial contributor for the Company.

If you look at where we were, we were like a $0.5 billion EBITDA in 2008.

What was the number, Ken?

We were about $1 billion in 2009.

We're $ 2.2 billion in 2010.

And, our run rate right now, starting in January, in same-store sales in Macao and Singapore is up significantly, and I think that the run rate we'll experience might bring us to another million dollar -- another billion dollar number.

So, we are experiencing a very -- what we call predictable and reliable growth trajectory.

So, we have gone up steadily over the last several years and we see no reason why we won't continue to go up steadily.

Mark had a question on Las Vegas, I think.

Thanks very much for that answer.

Just really quickly on Vegas, it looks like you guys have done some work on the promotional side.

I am guessing some of that is on the comp room side.

If you could give us any color there?

And, that's my last question.

Thanks.

Mark, thank you.

We have changed our mix considerably over the last couple of months in Vegas.

We have improved our group penetration, our group numbers for 2011 are basically, on the books today, compared to last year, over double what they were at the same time.

We experienced over 90,000 room nights for the month of January, which was significantly ahead of last year, and we're still booking.

We've actually increased our group room allotments, we've lowered our comp allotments considerably to get a better customer in, which may cause some short-term occupancy looks -- that looks down, but the cash component to us is actually better, and we continue to move those numbers forward.

I think Vegas right now, the group market, everybody will probably agree, has come back very strongly.

The rates are somewhat under pressure, but we've seen a little bit of an increase in the January group number rate and it is starting to go up to a reasonable number.

There is much more competition now on the FIT business due to more five-star rooms in the markets, and Cosmopolitan open.That will be competitive and difficult.

And, I guess lastly, our expectations for our InterContinental alliance are very high.

We're working hard on it, particularly on the technology side, to launch in April and we think that will fill a lot of the void in the competitive environment of what we call the transient part of the marketplace.

We know that the subject of comps has been played all across Las Vegas, but we've taken a different position.

We have essentially cut out all of our comps expect the most highly-rated players.

No more are we packaging deals with -- to try to be competitive to be others.

There are no more comp rooms given out, there's no RFP, there's no more food and beverage, there's no shopping credits, there's no restaurant credits, there's no showroom credits.

We're selling rooms.

And, we are see that it's resulting in a substantial increase in cash income.

Your next question comes from the line of Shaun Kelley of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Good afternoon.

Just wanted to start maybe with getting your quick thoughts on the latest on sites 5 and 6.

Obviously, a huge initiative there, and, specifically, what's going on in the labor front?Any insight on when you will be able to ramp-up the labor there and what the latest is probably for the opening date?

Sean, our expectation is to get, by the end of February, an additional 3,000 workers from the Galaxy Construction Force, finishing that property.

With that, that will give us the ability to multiply that by one, up to 6,000 more.

We stand at about 3,500 workers on site today.

At this particular juncture, we are still planning to open a portion of Phase 1 at the end of this year.

That portion of Phase 1 will be approximately close to 1,000 rooms.

One of the two casinos, appropriate food and beverage, [Inaudible] Club and VIP rooms.

That will be at the Trader and Shangri-la facilities.

That's the worst-case scenario that we are looking at now.

It could be better, if, in fact, we get more employees coming in.

We've the approvals for them.

We just have to match them one-for-one and, so, we're just looking to get the Macaunese coming off of Galaxy to do it.We get reports every week about it, that's the latest report which I got the day before yesterday, which indicates no change in that particular plan, positively or negatively.

That's helpful.

And, when, I guess, when do you think, Mike, you'd be at like a full property run rate.

I mean, obviously there are over 6,000 rooms that you're looking to get open there.

It would open in phases.

When do you think is a more indicative full run rate?

It's difficult to say at this point.

The completion of Phase 1, which will get us about 4,000 rooms, is actually on schedule for May of 2012.

Probably in that area, May of 2012.

What happens after that really is going to be dependant on two things.

Not only on construction working, but on the availability of the workers to service the hotels.

We still have some very significant concerns about the people who are going to make the beds, and clean the rooms and clean the facility and whatever on the line.

And, we're waiting very patiently to see how Galaxy works it out with their facility that comes up, really they should be starting to open in April, May or June of this year.

So, I can't predict when the last 2000 rooms will get in there.

Construction-wise, I think it's planned for the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013, at this point.

But, frankly, that's really going to depend upon the actual service labor available.

Great.

Thanks.

And, then, just one on Singapore, if I could.

Obviously, some of the non-gaming amenities started to show some continuing ramp there.

How should we think about where you guys are right now in the curve, and can those numbers continue to move higher from even these levels or are these more of the right run rate in terms of what you are seeing?

We are -- we're running in the mid- to high-80s now for occupancy.

I mean it's a few days now before Chinese New Year that have dropped down a little bit, but now it's picking right up.

Our occupancy numbers are getting close to the 90% target.

Our MICE business in the first couple of months of this year is good.

We still need to do some work there, but we think over time -- it's going to come.

The potential -- we are really getting close to the occupancy potential now and the rate structure is very good.

We've got a good rate going.

Our restaurant business is up considerably from where it's been, and I think we're probably 80% to 85% for the potential on the property for this moment of its lifestyle, or in its -- So, there is somewhat to go, but we're really pretty well ramped-up at this point.

More you're going to see with some more clubs and retail.

Retail is a bit little slower than we'd like.

We've opened about 260 stores right now.

250, 255, 260.

We've got about 40 stores to go.

That had a decent month in December, but it's still slower than we'd like.

It is probably about 55% to 60% of the way there on the EBITDA line.

And, that's because the subway is not yet open.

Yes.

When that subway drops everybody off, I think it will be fine.

So, yes.

In the first quarter, our annualized sales are about $982 a square foot, it was in the first quarter -- in the fourth quarter, so we're getting there.

But, that is the biggest -- the biggest piece to ramp from here is long-term MICE bookings in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and in the shopping mall.

But, the hotel, I think, is well within our expectations now.

And ,just one last one on the mall, if I could.

Any sense on either what the current run rate, NOI margins are there, or what kind of EBITDA that generated in 4Q.

I know you don't usually split it out, but that would be really helpful.

Thanks.

It is about in the mid 80s, EBITDA coming in on the mall revenue, today.

That's what I have seen in the last month.

It is really -- I can't give you a number that's going to be consistent over time, that should build up even higher than that, but I don't know if that's -- of course, December is a little different than November and different from October.

We're still in the early stages, but the long-term future of the mall in our business plan is to eventually dispose of the mall.

If you put a Cap rate on that of 4% or 5%, and you can see that we can do $170 million to $200 million of EBITDA out of there by 2013 or so, that's a lot of money in the bank for us going forward, so that's what we're watching.

Great.

Thanks.

So, our next question comes from the line of Joe Greff, of JPMorgan.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I have one Macau-related question and one Singapore-related question.

Can you just discuss some of your efforts in Macao increasing your junket VIP-related volumes, and, then, in the fourth quarter, was there a big difference in the mix between direct and junket?

Of VIP volumes at Venetian Macau, I think that was referenced in the earnings release.

And, then, for my Singapore question, can you just talk to me about the plan to replace, Tom, in near-term and a longer-term perspective?

Thank you.

Joe, let's start with opportunities in the Macao vis a vis junkets.

We think that our business in the Macao since David Sisk and Ed Tracy joined us, I think it's clear these guys made a big difference and we're seeing a nice move in the right direction.

The two places we're concentrating on in 2011 and beyond is the opportunity of junket sites.

It takes a lot of -- there are a lot issues there.

It's relationships, it's service, it's trying real hard to make sure that these guys view themselves as critical to our business plan.

I think you'll see us -- it is hard on this call to explain all of the issues there, but we have a lot of challenges we are meeting every day.

I just came back -- and David understands it very well, and it will be a focal point for our growth Macao.

We think it's a huge upside for us on the junket side and not the premium side.

Same goes with premium slots.

I think the success in premium slots, again, Ed and Dave have their work cut out for them.

It's relationships, it's customer focus, it's on the marketing side, but we think there's a lot of potential.

Our slot members are great on the math side.

We captured the market on the math side in the best way.

There's challenges though clearly on the VIP side of the slots, we hope our efforts will pay off in 2011 and 2012 and beyond.

We think there is great potential to grow our business in Macao, both top-line and EBITDA.

And, although we have done great stuff math side, there is opportunity in all those areas.

The second question related to junkets -- I'm sorry, can you restate your Macau junket question versus premium?

Yes, just generally when you discuss share of Venetian Macau fourth quarter results, you talk about the rolling chip volumes, the mix between direct and junket?

If you compare it, I don't have Venetian Macau but this is all of the operating properties, if you will, in Macau.

Percentage goes from about 16% to about 24%.

Great.

And, Joe, that's juiced up for Four Seasons, which is the highest one.

For Venetian, it is actually 18.6% or about $2.2 billion of the roll.

Perfect.

And, then, the comment -- any kind of commentary on the Marina Bay Sands on Tom Arasi?

Sure.

Right now, George Tanasijevich is Interim CEO for the building.

George has been there with us since the beginning.

He is extremely well-connected with everything in Singapore, from the government to the regulatory situations and the construction and the people -- the architect and all the people that built the building.

We beefed up the operations there over the last couple of months underneath Tom, and also the marketing and sales operation, which is basically doing a lot better now than it was previously.

We're not really essentially in a rush.

We're out to search now for the selection process for the CEO of Singapore.

George has been told he is a candidate, he is our global development guy.

We'd frankly not like to lose him to that job because he's important to us in global development, but we're out to search.

The search has been distributed and we will be developing candidates.

But, once again, I would say we are very confident that George could sit there and handle what has to be handled on a daily basis.

So, we are not in a rush.

We'll be very careful with the selection.

I should mention also that -- most of you probably know this, I don't want to be redundant, but these particular roles who run these businesses, the industry, either hospitality or gaming, has never really trained people to run buildings of this size and complexity in these resorts.

It's something about integrated resource.It's very hard to find people who can adjust to the seven, eight or nine businesses that exist under the roof of these places.

So, it could be somebody from any of these industries, but we're looking for a broad-based business person who can literally manage and lead a multiple of businesses at one time.

And, they don't come to you everyday, so it's not an easy search to do.

We are very confident George has a lot of the skills that might be necessary, but we want to make sure we take a look at this time, too.

Your next question comes from the line of Felicia Hendrix of Barclays Capital.

Hi, guys.

Hi, Felicia.

Hi.

My question for you.

You gave us some nice color on the 2011 group business in Lo\as Vegas and how that is shaping up.

I'm just wondering, is there anything on the books for 2012, what that might look like, and I'm assuming that pricing, for what you can see for 2012, is higher and better?

I got it this morning.

Right now, we're talking about for 2012, we're forecasting, what we have today, tentative and actual, about 781,000 room nights, which is more than what we have today and the forecast ADR is close to $200 for next year versus this forecast of ADR of $180.

Okay.

That's great.

Thanks.

Then, just moving to Singapore, whoever want to take this.

Your slot win created per day is obviously outstanding and you are adding more machines to address that.

Just wondering what the capacity is there?

Because I'm assuming that is going to be absorbed pretty quickly?

Yes.Listen, I think the story in Singapore -- there's a time line of $1 billion of departmental casino income was considered a big reach.

I think you more confident in Singapore and say we are going to reach $1 billion out of slots and mass tables.

I know the focus there's somewhat on the miss -- on the sequential quarter miss on the rolling.

But, what's extraordinary to me, we just came back from Singapore, we're adding 300 units.

Last night, we basically maxed out.

We ran in the high 90's in the terms of occupancy on those games.

So, I think the slots just keep growing.

The story to me in Singapore is the amazing growth in slots quarter-to-quarter, coupled with the growth in the non-rolling tables, affords you the opportunity to probably get to $1.5 billion.In the near future, someday, 2011 or late in 2011, you're going to see $1.5 billion of cumulative revenue, and 65-, 66-, 67-point margin.

Which means there'll be a day when sometime you talk to me about $1 billion EBITDA without a rolling chip across the table, which to me is pretty extraordinary for a place that people a year ago questioned whether it could make $1 billion.

The slot business there is exemplary in every way.

We keep full with the mix of games around.

and the team there keep moving the games around.

We're trying to maximize what obviously is an opportunity for beyond what we experienced in Macao years ago.

We'll add 300 games by the end of Q1, and we think the absorption is simple.

It's not going to be that difficult.

We think we should, with our marketing, our mix and this better thought process as it relates to slot machine, we -- we're hoping to see that market exceed $1 billion between us and RWS, and I think those guys have done a terrific job, as well.

So, clearly the slot business there is extraordinary.

I just worry about honestly over-capacity -- under-capacity, weekends and holidays when we are going to run 90% to 100%.

And, for those of you who have worked in markets like Las Vegas, it's unheard of.

But, it's a fact of life.

Million-dollar slot base are pretty much in the teens, we are now heading for $2 million, we're hoping during Chinese New Year to see $2 million slot base.

We couldn't be more -- as much as we're looking to improve and get our rolling chip business where we want it to be, and we are going to get it there, we couldn't be happier with the growth, sequential growth and January growth in slots and mass tables.

Yes, 65, 66, 67.

To me, the story in Singapore is $1 billion lateral rolling chip customers, so we couldn't be more pleased about what we're seeing in the slot business and mass tables where the hole percentage stays in the mid-20s, 22, 23, 24, and the volume there, the quarter-on-quarter growth is 5%-plus and we see a continued trend in January, so we're very, very pleased about those businesses.

What I'd like to say that we have not said before is we have not given up, and we've accelerated our quest for additional new executive talent.

And, in that respect, we just have two new guys that are joining us that will be based in Singapore.

So, I'll let Rob tell you about one in the casino and I will let Mike tell you about the other guy in sales.

So, Mark Juliano, I know rumors about that Mark's joining us, and he is.

He's moving over in a couple weeks full-time -- actually he's moving over this weekend full-time and Mark will be involved in the casino side.

We're still sorting out all the relationships, but we feel he's a good addition to our team over there.

Again, we keep looking to get stronger and smarter and more intelligent of the market and I think Mark adds real value, so he'll be a full-time MBS employee by this weekend actually.

Mike?

We've also hired a senior VP of Sales and Marketing for Asia based in Singapore by the name of John [Inzer], who's a Starwood executive who has been in Asia before.

He's been here for the last couple of weeks.

He'll be back in Singapore next week and then shortly thereafter permanently.

We beefed up our sales and marketing team all over the country now and in jobs that we haven't had before, which will help our MICE business, both for Singapore, as well as for Macao.

And, we will be announcing this week two additional employees in our project development area, design and construction, one from Disney and one from Gaylord, who'll be coming in.

They both are signed up and they'll be announced in terms of new development projects we're working on.

So, I think most of you have seen, we've also added a new position in Human Resources and we're pretty well staffed up for the battle ahead in every way.

We weren't awhile ago able to do.

Thank you, Mike.

Thanks.

Your next question comes from David Katz of Jefferies.

Hi.

Good afternoon.

This may seem somewhat of an odd question, but, as I look at the financial profile, particularly past this year, the leverage continues to come down dramatically and cash flow continues to ramp up.

Have you given any thought at this point to returning capital to shareholders, through dividends or other vehicles?

What thoughts do you have in that area?

Well, I have fantasies about it.

I don't know if I should follow that up.

No, don't follow that up.

Since the Adelson family still owns 52%, if the Board would declare a dividend, we'd get 52% of it.

That would allow me to feel free to travel in my bigger plane with more than two engines because of the cost of fuel.

All that baloney aside, we've not talked about it.

As a matter of fact, yesterday, Ken came up to me with a proposal that we pay down our $2 billion-something within the next 18 to 24 months of outstanding debt in Macao.

We have no rush to pay, whatever scheduled amortization payments throughout Singapore we could very easily meet.

He wants to make us debt-free in Macao, expect for 5 and 6 which hasn't opened yet.

So, we'll be debt-free in the other three properties if we pursue that route, and then we will upstream dividends to pay off the US restricted booth.

So, in terms of deleveraging, I've been saying that for years.

And, I know back in 2008, when things were dark-looking, everybody said, well, he's talking about paying off his debt and becoming debt free and we are talking about keeping that Company going.

And, of course, that was never an issue to me, vis-a-vis, having put in $1 billion dollars, and people are telling me today was best bet I ever made, but I say the best gamble I ever made was my second marriage, and I hit a grand slam jackpot on that one.

So, that was a good bet and so [Inaudible].

So, it looks like we are deleveraging -- not looks like -- we've got all this cash.

We have $2 billion or $3 billion in cash, we have $3 billion in credit lines, unused, untapped and we're earning billions of dollars this year.I don't want to say, because it would be considered guidance, but when I said that we would earn $1 billion in Singapore and $3 billion for the year, I have reason to think that we're not going to achieve that, if not more.

So, we're generating an awful lot of cash flow.

And to have cash or not to have cash, having cash is better.

And, no debt.

Perfect.

Thank you very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Bill Lerner with Union Gaming Group.

Thanks, hello, guys.

Maybe this is for Rob.

Can you talk a minute, Rob, just about the overlap or maybe lack of overlap in players across your system.

In particular, I know, in the past, there was some concern about cannibalization between Singapore and Macao.

We've chatted about that, but I think if we could get more color now, I think, from you on how much overlap there is and what's the difference is in those types of players.

It's a very different market, Bill.

We talked about that.Obviously, the growth engine for Macao is been Mainland China and we'll continue that for the future.

Not to say there isn't demand out of Mainland Hong Kong for Singapore, because there is some demand.

There is some overlap.

I don't think it's --it hasn't obviously impacted the numbers in Macao as they move to $30 billion US.

But, Singapore is still mainly reliant upon the region, being there's a quarter-billion -- 300 million people within a two-hour plane ride or bus ride or car ride or walk to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, et cetera, Vietnam.

I think the push in the business there will continue to be that region.

We have been honestly pleasantly surprised by the very upper-tier mainland customer who wants an escape getaway from Macao and comes down for three or four days.

That tends not to be the core Macao customer, it tends to be more of a brush on a mainlander who want to go for a real vacation, spend three, four or five days in Singapore.

And, let's not forget, we talk many times about the importance of the private wealth issue in Singapore.

So much money -- so much capital is resident there for private wealth, and I think that bodes very well, as well as does the access into Singapore is still extraordinary.

But, we're not seeing -- our -- we've had very little difficulty managing the demand.

And, customers tell us, we don't tell customers, where they want to go, but for Chinese New Year, I will tell you the demand in Singapore has been a pleasant problem.

We have too much demand.

It is an amazing business.

Same thing here in Nevada and Las Vegas.

We'll be dancing all weekend with the rabbits.

And, Macao continues to do amazing business, Macau is an extraordinary place.

So, at this point, it has not been an issue, we did anticipate, but it's so far has not been an issue for us.

Okay, thanks, Rob.

One follow-up since you mentioned Chinese New Year.

I know it is so much less fun to talk about Vegas than what you are doing in Asia these days.

But ,what -- just as it relates to Chinese New Year in Vegas, what did advance reservations suggest?

What are you experiencing now?

As you're --

Extraordinary.

I think demand in Los Vegas is great.

The city needs these big holidays and we got it.

We are participating as much as anybody.

Let's face it.

LVS is privileged to be the only Company in the world with two different gaming licenses in Asia.

We're feeling the punch of that.

We're completely sold out in every level.

A lot of capacity issues with table games this weekend.

We expect to have an extraordinary year of the rabbit.

But, people concerned about Nevada being hurt by Asia, by Singapore, by Macao, should relax.

Because just the opposite's happening.We get all that residual business that comes here in Nevada because of the relationships with those customers.

They know us.

They know who we are.

The same, I think the Wynn folks participate very well, and so does MGM.

I think we have a very, very strong holiday in Las Vegas.

Very strong.

Great.

Thanks, guys.

Your next question comes from Robin Farley of UBS.

Did we send her another -- Hi, Robin.

We lost her.

Your line is open.

Your next question comes from Larry Klatzkin of Craft.

Hello?

Hello, Larry.

Well, that was a little change of a name.

Listen, most of my questions have been answered.

So, the question I have was Vegas Sands is a name from the past?

Is there a chance, Sheldon, you're considering a change to something more contemporary with the businesses of the Company?

I tell you, I brought it up before our Board, Larry, and there are people that say since we are expansion, the bulk of our expansion will be in foreign, it's good to identify with Las Vegas and say that we come out of Las Vegas.

So, Las Vegas is bringing its [Inaudible], its style to other countries, but it doesn't seem to prevent us from talking to several governments.

I want to tell you that not necessarily in Asia, but in Europe, we're talking about grandson incentives, which means they're going to follow the economic development model that has been successful in many countries here to-fore, and we're going to look at getting subsidized and tax holidays and lower gaming taxes and all good stuff from other countries when we bring our developments there.

So, that's the reason we've got several people that are new in our development team that are joining us this month.

And, that can help us justify land selection, and we're taking a different approach on not constructing ourselves, but bidding out the construction costs.

We've a very, very exciting future, and as I said earlier, we're looking at following the various steady, predictable and reliable growth pattern.

Regardless of any bumps in the road anywhere along the road, we look very, very good.

We've looked very good in the past, and I see no reason the fundamentals will change for us to look equally as good, if not better in the future.

Sheldon, I agree with you 100%.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Robin Farley with UBS.

I hope my line is open this time.

You're open Robin.

You're open.

Great.

Thank you.

Did you get our towel?

Yes, I know.

I was wondering if you need it back.

But, I do have it if you need it.

What?

I wanted to ask you --

No, no, no we have plenty of towels but we will send you some eggs.

I wonder if you could put some of your comments about Singapore in context, just looking at how your hold on rolling volume was above the normal rate.

Would you calculate that's about $295 million from EBITDA if you normalize your hold?

No.

I want to give you something, and I think we neglected to put it in our prepared remarks.

Our 200-day moving average, which really counts, is 2.83%.

Am I correct on that, Ken?

Where is that -- ?Dan, do you have that chart?

Yes.

The ups and downs, the peaks and valleys of weekly and monthly performance is not really what it's all about.

What it's really all about is what your long-term moving average is and the percentage.

I'm looking at it now.

Oops, I made a mistake.

It's not 2.83%, it's 2.93%.

Okay?

But I would -- life to date the average all the way through from the time we started.

The 2.93% is the 200-day moving average, and life-to-date is 2.83%.

Sorry, I got that a little confused.

So, you can make adjustments up and down for the quarter, but for a valued investor, and, of course, we have a lot of those, for a valued investor and a long-term holder like us, we're interested in where we're going long-term.

If we had an extraordinary number like 3.5% or 4.0% on the high-end hold, of course it would be cause to make the adjustments.

But, when you're looking at a 200-day moving average, square within the bracket that we need, between 2.85% and 3%, that's the bracket that we need.

I mean, you can't pick it out to the 0.01% of 1%.

Yes, I totally agree with your comments about the value of looking at the long-term.

And, that's why above if you could use 2.93% as the average percent per quarter 3%, if you're using your 2.93% -- I was going to give you credit for 3%, but if you want to use 2.93% as what the average would have been in the quarter, I don't know if that would put you in the $280 million range in EBITDA.

I am trying to think about what you think a normalized level is.

If you want to use 2.93%, that's actually -- that's great

That's the 200-day moving average.

I wonder if you can also put some of your comments about January during the Q&A.

Either give an indication either of maybe what rolling volumes were or whether January was above average, as well, just to put that EBITDA in context for us?

Frankly, I don't know.

I just got the number.

We get numbers on a daily basis, and that was the number for the 31st.

I didn't look at the details because I didn't anticipate blurting them out as I'm prone to do.

That is helpful.

I totally agree about looking at long-term, and that's why I wanted to look at a quarterly on a normalized basis.

So, great.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Your next question comes from Cameron McKnight of Buckingham.

Good afternoon.

Sheldon, if you could elaborate or comment on the initial positioning of sites 5 and 6 relative to the your other properties in Macao when you guys opened the first phase at the end of this year?

What do you mean by initial position?

In terms of strategy, what market you'll be looking to go after?

On the casino side or on the non-gaming side?

On both, if you could.

It's -- what did he say?

On both.

On both.

On the non-gaming side, this is the first time we are bringing in, besides the Four Seasons, but it's only 360 rooms.

Excuse me.

Thank you.

This is the first time we will have Shangri-La, Traders, Sheraton; first time we're going to be able to dig very deeply into an international branded -- international brands and their database and their customer base to come to our properties.

Now, we have already experienced InterContinental depth, with over 100 million frequent users, customers, whatever they call them, we want program customers in Las Vegas here at the Venetian Palazzo.

So, it's going to be very interesting.

We don't know for sure but we're very hopeful because, in putting together the program we need for the InterContinental here in Vegas, the potential for that is extraordinary.

We understand that in another location that Inter Con has done this, they're providing 45% of the FIT for that hotel.

I don't want to mention the name, because we're not --

Total room.

Total room revenue of 44%.

Well, that's tremendous.

So, our original -- my original vision to bring in all these very deep databases and customer lists of the international brands, I believe is going to work out.

We are already lining up -- we have about 40 private gaming rooms that we will be lining up -- that we are lining up our junket reps to go in there.

And, if we didn't say it today, I'll just repeat it.

We are relying less on premium direct customers and relying more upon the junket reps.

As I told them, because we thought that what Steve Jacobs had done was the wrong move.

It was one of the reasons he was terminated.

We asked him not to do that and he did that.

In any event, we're -- our relationship with the junket reps is improving.

We just brought on a top guy from one of our top competitors whose relationships with the junket reps is what we brought him on for.

He's a specialist in that, and we expect that to improve.

So, as far as the two mass market casinos are concerned, we are opening one at a time.

One will be open and six months later, the other one.

But, the rolling programs in the 40 private gaming rooms will be -- most of them, if not all of them, will be open from the outside.

But, it's -- Rob, can you had anymore to that?

I think you said it well.

I do.

Well, I said nothing but I said it well.

You said it well.

I think we have added talent in the junket side.

We've a lot of work cut out for us there and a lot of opportunity to grow it.

I think we've done an extraordinary job on the mass side of the business, both mass volume table, as well as slots.

The offside is in the junket and premium slot side, and that will be the focal point as we go forward.

Great.

Thank you.

By the way, these stadium-style seating capacities on six ball and baccarat and roulette have not been in the past in much demand in Macao, but we put them in and now they're doing quite well.

They're doing very well.

So.

it goes to show you what I have been saying for years, that demand -- that supply creates demand.

When we first started, I might add, when we first started there was big argument within the management of this Company as to whether or not we should rely upon putting in slots.

There are those of us, of which I was one, that was a major advocate of slot growth, because at that time, they had English language and English characters in the slots.

So, if somebody wanted to know how they were going to win, they had to learn how to read English.

So, when we just -- we had the slot manufactures make up face plates of Chinese characters on the wheels and Chinese language characters so they could read, are they going to win?

Then, it made quite a difference and now the slot business in Macao is a very, very big business.

And growing.

And growing.

Any further questions?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the allotted time for Q&A.

Sir, is there are any closing remarks?

Any closing remarks.

Okay.

Let me say thank you and let me close by saying that we have proven over the last several years that, while we do see peaks and valleys in our business on a monthly or short-term basis, we've enjoyed a very predictable growth trajectory.

There is no reason to believe any fundamentals of our business are changing, so we have every expectation that this growth trajectory will continue.

We're proud of another record quarter and the completion of the most successful year in our Company's history.

But make no mistake about it, we will not rest on our laurels.

We have the best assets in each of the markets in which we operate, and we will work tirelessly to make sure each of them is maximizing its potential.

At the same time, we will continue to aggressively pursue new opportunities, which will fill our development pipeline and help us maintain our position as the pace-setter for growth in our industry.

Thank you all for joining us.

And we look forward to talking with you again soon.

This concludes today's conference.

You may now disconnect.