Nevada regulators approve big Sands-Venetian offering

Thursday, Oct. 21, 2004 | 9:25 a.m.

CARSON CITY, Nev. - A common stock offering designed to raise $575 million for the company building the $1.6 billion Palazzo megaresort on the Las Vegas Strip and expanding to Macau was approved Thursday by the Nevada Gaming Commission.

The commission's approval of the Las Vegas Sands initial public offering is subject to federal Securities and Exchange Commission approval. Marketing of the offering is planned for November.

Las Vegas Sands attorney Greg Giordano said structuring of the IPO would allow it to increase to nearly $700 million but it's "totally unclear" whether that option would be exercised.

Las Vegas Sands, which owns the Venetian Casino Resort in Las Vegas and the Sands Macau in Macau, is controlled by entrepreneur Sheldon Adelson, who founded the COMDEX technology trade show before buying the Sands in 1989. He sold COMDEX in 1995. Adelson also controls the Sands Expo and Convention Center.

The combined Palazzo, Venetian and Sands Expo will be the largest resort and hotel complex in the world, with more than 7,000 hotel rooms and suites.

Giordano said proceeds from the offering will be used for "general corporate purposes" and for developing projects in England and Asia.

Besides the Palazzo, which will be linked to the Venetian, the company also is looking at major expansion of its new Macau club - the first American-owned casino in Asia. The company also is opening a $1 billion credit line for its Venetian subsidiary.

Gary Saunders, Las Vegas Sands vice president of international operations, told commissioners the corporation is being "very slow and cautious" about moving into high-end gambling at its $240 million Sands Macau, which opened last May. Such gambling accounts for 80 percent of the action in Macau clubs.

Adelson's long-term plans for Macau include a huge resort complex of several hotels and casinos that will be patterned after the Las Vegas Strip.

Saunders also said regulators in Macau tend to be "overly detailed" and "very determined to change the image" of the Chinese coastal territory and former Portuguese colony, where gambling is the top industry.

Nevada regulators have expressed concern about money-laundering and unsavory vendors who provide supplies to resorts in Macau, and have described it as similar to what Nevada was 40 years ago when the state was stepping up efforts to rid the casino industry of mob influences.