Las Vegas Sands `Committed' to $4 Billion Singapore Casino

By Jean Chua

Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corp. remains ``committed'' to its $4 billion Singapore casino and said the city-state approved its proposal for as many as 1,000 gaming tables.

The company met Singapore government officials this week to discuss completing the project, it said yesterday. Las Vegas Sands, which may be short of cash for $16 billion of projects in Asia, has no problems with its local borrowings, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and DBS Group Holdings Ltd. said this week.

``The acceptance of our proposed casino layout by the Casino Regulatory Authority gives us the flexibility to increase our original table count of 600 to as much as 1,000 to meet demand,'' Adelson said in the statement.

Las Vegas Sands is seeking funds to stave off loan defaults in the face of ``substantial doubt'' about its ability to survive, it said Friday in a U.S. regulatory filing. Macau casino revenue, which supplies about two-thirds of sales, fell in the second and third quarters for the first time in at least three years.

The Singapore development is ``ring-fenced,'' and Las Vegas Sands has ``put in more equity than necessary,'' Oversea-Chinese Banking Chief Executive Officer David Conner said on Nov. 5. DBS Group Chief Executive Richard Stanley told reporters yesterday the bank sees ``no indication of default'' on the company's debt.

The two Singapore-based banks are among eight hired to arrange S$5 billion ($3.3 billion) of loans for the project. Las Vegas Sands has drawn down S$2 billion from the credit facility for the Singapore resort, it said in January.

``If this project were in the U.S., it would not be as significant,'' Song Seng-Wun, head of Singapore research with CIMB-GK Securities Pte, said by telephone today. ``If this is just an issue of funding rather than the long-term economic viability of the project, I believe the Singapore government would be ready to step in and explore all possible options to make sure it succeeds.''

Singapore in 2005 lifted a four-decade ban on casinos to diversify the economy and create jobs, giving Las Vegas Sands and Genting Bhd. approval to build gaming resorts.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jean Chua in Singapore at jchua4@bloomberg.net