Las Vegas Sands GGR won’t see full recovery until 2024, analysts say

Analysts at Moody’s Investors Service Inc say the recovery will still depend on the reopening of borders and the resumption of business travel.

Macau.- Moody’s Investors Service Inc has predicted that Las Vegas Sands is unlikely to see a full recovery in gross gaming revenue until 2024. The chances of that remain dependent on a resumption of both business travel and leisure travel.

Moody’s analysts Adam McLaren and Philip Kibel pointed out: “We expect the ramp-up will improve over the back half of 2022, although expect mass-market gaming revenue to still remain roughly 40 per cent of 2019 levels by the end of 2022, increasing to 80 per cent in 2023.”

The company currently operates Sands China in Macau and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. In February, LVS completed the sale of its Las Vegas casino portfolio for US$6.25bn to private equity firm Apollo Global Management and VICI Properties. 

According to Moody’s, the casino operator has strong liquidity with more than US$6.4bn in consolidated cash and nearly US$3.5bn in undrawn revolving credit facilities.

It also has a “Baa3” “negative credit profile” supported by the high quality, popularity and reputation of its casino assets, as well as the company’s strong pre-Covid-19 credit metrics and positive long-term gaming demand trends in each of its geographic markets.

However, analysts said credit metrics in the rating categories remain very weak and that they expect them to remain weak in 2022. They said it may be challenging to restore credit metrics to levels consistent with expectations based on run rates in 2022 and 2023.