Top Sands execs get five-year contracts after IPO

By Liz Benston (contact)

Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2004 | 10:44 a.m.

The owner of the Venetian resort in Las Vegas has locked up its top executives with employment contracts in advance of its forthcoming initial public offering.

Last week, Las Vegas Sands Corp. entered into five-year employment agreements with Chief Executive Sheldon Adelson, President William Weidner, Executive Vice President Brad Stone and Senior Vice President Robert Goldstein that will take effect when the company goes public, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company entered into a three-year contract with Chief Financial Officer Scott Henry that became effective Sept. 13.

Under the agreements, Adelson, Weidner and Stone will each receive annual base salaries of $1 million. Goldstein and Henry will receive salaries of $965,000 and $500,000, respectively. The executives also are entitled to annual performance-based bonuses and restricted stock awards as well as grants of stock options.

The base salaries are in the middle of the pack for the major Las Vegas resort companies, according to a list compiled by In Business Las Vegas, a sister publication of the Sun.

Adelson, Weidner, Stone and Goldstein earned total compensation -- including bonuses, exercised stock options and grants -- of $2.3 million, $2.1 million, $1.7 million and $1.6 million in 2003, the latest information available.

If any executive is terminated without cause, he'll receive his salary and base bonus for the remainder of the employment contract or, in some circumstances, a portion of it, the filing said. Executives also would receive a supplemental bonus in place of the regular bonus, automatic vesting of stock options and restricted stock and continued health and welfare benefits for the remainder of the agreement.

Executives who are terminated within a two-year period following a change in control of the company will be entitled to a payment of two times their salary plus a base bonus, a supplemental bonus, automatic vesting of options and restricted stock and continued health and welfare benefits for the remainder of the contract.

The company's Chief Executive and controlling shareholder, Sheldon Adelson, and the board of directors retain the right to modify the executives' job duties, the filing said.