Las Vegas Sands, the casino operator founded by Sheldon Adelson, one of the world’s billionaires, has received favourable news regarding the company’s efforts to expand in Singapore. Las Vegas Sands holds the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore and is planning a 15.000 square meters expansion with 2.71 billion dollars.
In the casino’s and resort company’s efforts to advance in the Asian market, the Securities and Exchange Commission registered that they secured a loan of 2.71 billion dollars. Before this announcement, the Las Vegas Sands mentioned it was seeking finance for its further expansion at the world-famous Marina Bay Sands. The company had struck a deal with the Singapore tourism board in April this year, the deal being closed to fund the luxury resort’s complex.
The Singapore tourism board granted the Las Vegas Sands company’s plans to grow in scale and size. The only other casino resort of the area, the Resorts World Sentosa owned by Genting Singapore Ltd, was also granted the opportunity to do so.
Renown internationally for the distinctive design it holds, the Marina Bay Sands looks like a ship floating on 3 massive skyscrapers, dominating the skyline. And the resort also holds the world’s largest infinity pool, aside from the large casino.
The Sands company released an initial announcement in June this year, saying that it is aiming to land a 6 billion dollars investment to sustain the efforts it does to complete the expansion works, which have been agreed with the Singapore tourism board. Even though the founding was smaller than the company requested, it was believed that the announcement was the starting point of the expansion beginning.
The president and COO of Las Vegas Sands, Robert Goldstein, has declared that he expects the investment to be completed by 2024. In July this year, he also held a speech during which he mentioned that the company is willing to spend 3.3 billion in order to secure the expansion.
The NASDAQ provided information that underlined the fact that the company is committed to expanding the existing agreement with DBS Bank Ltd, signed on the 30th of August. The existing loan increased from 180.74 million dollars to 542.22 million dollars, and the due date is set in February 26th 2026. The annual interest rate is fixed at 1.65%, and from September 2020 it will change into a variable rate interest.
The filing is also referring to the fact that the terms can change once the completion certificate is made, continuing the planned expansion. This will help the company have two years if any delays might intervene.
So far, there have not been submitted plans referring to what Marina Bay will look like after the expansion is complete. It is only known that the company has agreed with the Singapore tourism board to expand the casino by up to 15.000 square meters. To have an idea, this surface is capable of holding around 1.000 electronic gaming machines.
The Singapore government already announced to increase the casino’s tax rates in 2022, due to the popularity of the gambling industry in the city-state. This sector has become more and more popular, among tourists and locals alike.