Las Vegas Sanda Corp has quietly increased its stake in Macau concessionaire Sands China to almost 74.8% over the past three months – bringing it close to the 75% limit under Hong Kong’s public float listing rules.
Investment bank JP Morgan revealed in a Thursday note that LVS had spent US$337 million of its own money between 1 July and 10 October 2025 to grow its interest by around 1.4 percentage points to 74.76%, edging it closer to its maximum holding. The Hong Kong Exchange requires at least 25% of a company’s issued share capital be held by public investors.
LVS has previously outlined its intention to use some of the proceeds from the 2023 sale of its Las Vegas assets to increase its stake in Sands China, held through indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Venetian Venture Development Intermediate II. This included a US$250 million investment in December 2023 and another US$103 million investment in September 2024.
Patrick Dumont, President and COO of LVS, addressed the issue during the company’s 3Q25 earnings call on Thursday when asked about capital allocation.
“I think the best thing is that we are a capital allocation story and a return to capital story,” he said. “If you look at the company’s history, we’ve been very shareholder-friendly. We allocate capital with growth in mind. We invest for high returns. When those high-return investment opportunities aren’t available, we return the capital and we try to do it through dividends in an approved manner and through share repurchases. I think that’s where you’re seeing us today.
“We did buy back [Sands China shares] over the last little while [and] we’re basically getting close to the limit. We’re at 74.76%, I think the number is. You know, we can’t really go past 75%. I think for us right now, we’re kind of where we are at with [Sands China].”
LVS announced Thursday that it would increase its own annual dividend payments to US$1.20 or US$0.30 per quarter – up from US$0.25 previously – following a strong 3Q25 performance in which its group-wide revenue reached US$3.33 billion.
