Sands China Ltd is said to be targeting annual dividend payouts totaling US$1.5 billion once business levels improve, representing almost three times the current payout level, according to information from Seaport Research Partners.
The research platform is hosting this week its annual summer conference where investors are hearing from hundreds of companies across multiple sectors, including Sands China’s parent company Las Vegas Sands (LVS), among others.
Releasing some “select takeaways” from the conference this week following its discussions, Seaport revealed that Sands China views the return of capital to shareholders as a priority and is likely to raise dividends as business improves, hoping to get to US$1.5 billion in dividends (of which LVS would receive 72%).
The Macau concessionaire earlier this month declared an interim dividend of HK$0.25 per share, equivalent with the final dividend issued earlier in the year and representing an aggregate of US$258 million or 62.5% of the US$413 million in profit it reported in 1H25.
Sands China has stated that it remains unhappy with its performance level in Macau and would adopt a significantly more aggressive approach to customer reinvestment to claw back market share.
On that issue, Seaport’s takeaways noted that the company is “still in the early days of the revamped marketing effort” and that “player reinvestment dollars will go up, but ratio to revenues may start coming down or holding steady from last quarter levels.
“The company will grow EBITDA sequentially,” the summary explained. “Higher growth in the market may benefit Sands due to its large capacity in hotel rooms and gaming positions.”
Seaport noted that Sands China remains bullish on the Macau market with the recent rebound in GGR growth “driven by higher spend by wealthy Chinese, increased agency and junket business, more visitation and higher frequency.”
Growth, it added, “is largely (not entirely) driven by higher ends of the market; day-tripper business is growing, but overnight base mass is still weak.
“The rest of the year looks good, with double-digit growth in GGR for the market possible.”
It reiterated that Sands China has been revamping its marketing and player reinvestment to be more competitive in the market and to grow revenue, EBITDA and share.
