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发帖数: 59 | 1 Las Vegas Sands crumbles on bankruptcy fears
4:43p ET November 6, 2008 (MarketWatch)
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Las Vegas Sands crumbled more than 33%
Thursday after the one-time high-flying casino company said it will likely
violate debt covenants this quarter, raising the specter that it might not
survive the current economic crisis.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sands -- controlled
by billionaire Sheldon Adelson -- told regulators that the size of its debt
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发帖数: 59 | 2 Las Vegas Sands crumbles on bankruptcy fears
4:43p ET November 6, 2008 (MarketWatch)
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Las Vegas Sands crumbled more than 33%
Thursday after the one-time high-flying casino company said it will likely
violate debt covenants this quarter, raising the specter that it might not
survive the current economic crisis.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sands -- controlled
by billionaire Sheldon Adelson -- told regulators that the size of its debt
is now above the agreed maximum leverage ratio. And, if it can't drum up
more financing, the company said it could well default on its IOUs.
Shares of Sands plummeted $3.81 to close at $7.85. The stock had been
rebounding lately on hopes that Adelson and his family would pump some of
their own cash into the company to fund ongoing developments and operations.
After running up to as high as $150 last year, the stock cratered at $4.32
last month.
The company's auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, said in a filing that if
Sands does default on debt covenants, lenders could demand to be repaid
sooner, something that "raises substantial doubt about the company's ability
to continue as a going concern."
The economic meltdown has battered Las Vegas particularly hard as customers
stay away in droves and the ones who do arrive spend less. In addition,
Sands' properties in Macau have been hurt by new restrictions on visas for
gamblers arriving from mainland China.
Further, casino operators rely on huge loans to fund aggressive expansion
plans and the credit crisis has all but dried up the money tap forcing
companies like MGM Mirage and Boyd to postpone or scale back some of their
more ambitious development projects.
"The good times for the gaming industry are over -- at least in the short-
term outlook," said Joseph Weinert, a senior vice president at Spectrum
Gaming, an industry consultancy. "As we see with Las Vegas Sands, even the
titans of the industry are having to make major concessions with respect to
their financial structures, development plans and operations. This industry
is not for the timid right now." | f*********a
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