Sands awarded $67.7 million in bonuses in ‘04

Jeannine DeFoe

Monday, May 2, 2005 | 10:41 a.m.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. awarded Chief Executive Sheldon Adelson and three top executives a total of $67.7 million in bonuses last year after selling a shopping mall in a casino under development.

Adelson, who's 71 and also chairman, received a bonus of $30 million, the Las Vegas-based company said Friday in a Securities and Exchange commission filing. Chief Operating Officer William Weidner received a $13.2 million award.

The bonuses were mostly reward for securing the financing to construct a shopping mall in the Palazzo resort being built on the Las Vegas Strip and then arranging the mall's sale. The value created by the sale will be used to provide capital for future expansion, the company said.

Las Vegas Sands operates the Venetian casino on the Strip and a resort in the Chinese territory of Macau. The company is building the $1.6 billion Palazzo Casino Resort adjacent to the Venetian and the $1.8 billion Venetian Macau.

Bradley Stone, executive vice president, was granted a $12.6 million bonus and Robert Goldstein, senior vice president, received $11.9 million.

Adelson also received a salary of $1.56 million and stock options worth $2.2 million.

Bloomberg News valued Adelson's 91,843 options at $2.2 million on their grant date, using the Black-Scholes pricing formula, a 10-year term, a stock-volatility rate of 43.02 percent and a comparable U.S. Treasury yield for the risk-free interest rate. Bloomberg News discounted the result by 27.5 percent to adjust for vesting restrictions and the inability to be traded.

In 2004 Las Vegas Sands's net income rose to $495.2 million from $66.6 million, lifted by the Macau casino's May opening.

Las Vegas Sands shares fell 55 cents to $37.45 Friday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have risen 29 percent since December, when they were first offered to the public. They rose to a high of $53.98 in their first week of trading.