LAS VEGAS: Casino operator Las Vegas Sands said Wednesday that it lost $136.5 million in the fourth quarter, down from a profit of $39.9 million a year earlier, as gambling markets continued to decline in Las Vegas and Macau.
The company reported Wednesday that it lost 27 cents per share on revenue of $1.09 billion that was slightly higher than its fourth-quarter 2007 revenue of $1.04 billion. In the year-ago period, the company earned 11 cents per share.
“I don’t need to remind you of the significant uncertainty the economy and the markets are currently experiencing,” William Weidner, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands, said in a conference call with investors.
“People in both of those markets are clearly spending less once they arrive,” Weidner said. “While we cannot control consumer confidence or know when the market conditions will improve, what we can and will do is control our cost structure and focus all of our collective efforts on the disciplined execution plan.”
The stock rose 23 cents to close at $3.98 on Thursday. In after-hours trading, after the company reported its earnings, the stock rose 23 cents more, or 6.1 percent.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Las Vegas Sands to earn 4 cents per share on $1.17 billion in revenue for the quarter.
For the full fiscal year, which ended Dec. 31, the company lost 48 cents per share, or $188.8 million, compare with earnings of 33 cents per share, or $116.7 million, in 2007. Revenue was $4.39 billion in 2008, compared with $2.95 billion in 2007.
The company said it will more than double its cost-cutting effort companywide, in hopes of saving $250 million annually.
The company previously laid out plans for saving $100 million a year at its two Las Vegas casinos, the Venetian and Palazzo resorts, and said that effort would be increased to $125 million. Sands said its new plan would include an effort to save $125 million annually in its Macau operations.
Sands said its revenue from its Macau operations declined $29 million to $471.4 million for the fourth quarter.
“This program is designed to reduce our operating costs while preserving as many Macanese jobs as possible,” said Bradley Stone, Sands’ president of global operations and construction.
Sands is lowering staffing levels in Macau to reflect current needs instead of what the company anticipates it will need in the future, and the company is working to increase international travel to the Chinese enclave, Stone said.
Las Vegas Sands said it was pressing ahead with a development in Singapore and is less than four months from opening its $743 million Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, casino about 85 miles from New York, though the company has put off finishing the restaurants, entertainment and other non-gambling elements planned there.
The company expects to open its $5.4 billion Marina Bay Sands casino in Singapore in less than a year. Sands said it was working with government tourism officials there to determine the exact timing.
The figures of $136.5 million for the company’s fourth-quarter loss and $188.8 million for all of 2008 follow GAAP, or generally accept accounting principles, and are the figures for Las Vegas Sands’ net loss “attributable to common stockholders.”
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/12/business/NA-US-Earns-Las-Vegas-Sands.php
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