Macau casino giant Sands China posted a 63% increase in profit for the first quarter.
Net income for the Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (HK: 1928) rose to US$452.9 million from $277.4 million in the same period in 2012 on revenue that was up 39% to $2.02 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — the key industry measure of the ability to turn sales into cash flow — climbed 39% to $626.4 million.
For the three months ended 31st March, the company counted a record 14 million visits.
Sands China has been expanding aggressively at the territory’s popular Cotai resort district, a stretch of reclaimed land joining the Macau-administered islands of Taipa and Coloane that has begun to surpass the Macau peninsula proper as the must-see place in the city for the Chinese mass market.
Last year, Sands added a three-hotel, two-casino complex called Sands Cotai Central to its portfolio, which includes The Venetian Macao and the Plaza on Cotai and Sands Macao on the peninsula. and announced in January that it had received government approval to add 200 additional table games.
Sands plans to invest another $2.8 billion to build a fifth resort, a themed extravaganza called Parisian complete with a replica of the Eiffel Tower on a portion of its Cotai land holdings