Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Sands Has Funds For IR

Source : The Straits Times, Nov 18, 2008

LAS Vegas Sands Corp has enough money to finish Singapore's first casino without help from the city-state's government or billionaire Kwek Leng Beng after the company raised US$2.1 billion (S$3.2 billion), President William Weidner said.

Las Vegas Sands, controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, halted developments in Macau and Las Vegas to focus on finishing a Singapore project and the casino part of its Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, site. -- PHOTO: LAS VEGAS SANDS

Parts of Marina Bay Sands will open later than the end of 2009, as originally scheduled, on construction snags and an 'unprecedented' shortage of raw materials that is now 'opening up', Mr Weidner said in an interview in Las Vegas on Tuesday. 'We have all the money required to be able to complete the project.'

Las Vegas Sands, controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, halted developments in Macau and Las Vegas to focus on finishing a Singapore project and the casino part of its Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, site.

Bloomberg news said the company raised US$2.1 billion last week selling stock and warrants, prompting auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC to remove a warning that there was 'substantial doubt' the company could survive on Monday.

Mr Adelson and Mr Weidner plan to travel to Asia within the next two weeks to assess the company's developments, said Mr Weidner, who is also Las Vegas Sands' chief operating officer.

Raising cash and mothballing developments 'gets us through what we anticipate to be a very rough 18 months approximately ahead of us until we see recovery, somewhere in 2010 or 2011', Mr Weidner told an investor meeting in Vegas on Tuesday.

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