Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Moody’s notes strong earnings in Las Vegas Sands upgrades

Citing solid fourth quarter earnings Moody's Investors Service today upgraded key Las Vegas Sands Corp. debt ratings.

The Corporate Family and Probability of Default ratings went to Ba3 from B1. All of the company's long-term debt ratings were also raised to Ba3 from B1. The company's Speculative Grade Liquidity rating was raised to SGL-1 from SGL-2.

The ratings outlook for Las Vegas Sands is stable, Moody's said.

The Corporate Family upgrade reflects Moody's view that Sands has the ability and willingness to reduce its debt/EBITDA ratio from 5.3 to 4 or below by the end of fiscal 2011.

EBITDA is a profitability measure meaning earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Las Vegas Sands last reported it's carrying $10.14 billion of debt.

"Las Vegas Sands' very strong fourth quarter 2010 results combined with Moody's expectation that these positive trends will continue, and that the company will apply its free cash flow and significant cash balances to further reduce absolute amounts of debt outstanding, support the one-notch upgrade," Keith Foley, senior vice president at Moody's, said in a statement.

Improved net revenue and EBITDA performance from the United States and Macau, along with the continued "successful ramp up" of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, led to a 60 percent increase in net revenue and EBITDA more than doubling for the quarter, Moody's said.

Marina Bay Sands continues to exceed Moody's expectations and is on track to generate more than $1 billion of EBITDA in its first full year of operation, Moody's said.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy