Venetian hotel-casino breaks Las Vegas profit record

Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | 8:30 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - The Venetian resort took the title as the most profitable hotel-casino in Las Vegas during the first three months of the year, company officials reported Tuesday.

The Las Vegas Strip hotel posted quarterly cash flow of $103.9 million for the quarter, up 63.4 percent from $63.6 million a year ago, Las Vegas Sands Inc. said.

Cash flow, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, is a widely used measure of casino industry profitability.

"We believe this is the highest ever-single property EBITDA result in the history of Las Vegas, edging out the Bellagio's standout $99 million (in cash flow) last week," Marc Falcone, a Deutsche Bank gambling analyst in New York, said in an investors note.

The company reported record net income of $37.8 million for the first quarter compared with $13 million for the same period a year ago.

Revenue for the quarter was $220.8 million compared with $158.7 million for the same quarter in 2003.

The privately held Las Vegas Sands has public debt requiring it to release quarterly results.

"The opening of the Venezia Tower at The Venetian during 2003 represented further confirmation of our business plan to combine group rooms demand with individual suite room sales and casino promotional activities to allow us to achieve these record results," William Weidner, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands, said in a statement.

Revenue from hotel operations was $85.4 million for the quarter, a 48.5 percent increase over the $57.5 million reported in the same period a year ago.

The increase was fed by a higher average daily room rate, from $217 a night during the 2003 quarter to $235 a night in 2004.

Casino revenue climbed 29.2 percent to $94.7 million for the quarter. The company said table game win percentage was higher than normal for the 2004 quarter at 28 percent, compared with 24.1 percent in 2003.

Falcone said The Venetian's success was part of a larger trend in Las Vegas.

"As we have repeatedly said, we have not seen Las Vegas this strong in nearly five years," he said. "Under any circumstance, we think these results are yet one more data point to support the overall strength and healthiness of the Las Vegas market and a testament to the success of the Las Vegas Sands well-thought-out business model."