Las Vegas Sands Corp To Sell Vegas Casinos For $6.25 Billion
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When Las Vegas Sands Corp. initially announced that it was planning to sell all of its iconic Las Vegas casino properties, it surprised a lot of market analysts. Sands Corp, which is the biggest casino operator in the world in terms of size and volumes, has wasted no time in finding a buyer for its Strip properties.
Apollo Global and Vici Properties To Acquire Properties
Sands Corp. has confirmed that it will dispose its Las Vegas properties to Apollo Global Management and Vici Properties in a deal that is estimated to be worth $6.25 billion. The deal will be subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be completed before the end of 2021.
Apollo Global Management and Vici Properties have decided to join forces to complete the acquisition of the Sands Expo and Convention Center and the iconic Venetian Casino which many credit as being ‘the casino’ that paved the way for former chairman and founder Sheldon Adelson to become establish himself as one of the top casino tycoons in the world.
Apollo Global Management will pay $2.25 billion to acquire the operating rights for the Venetian while Vici Properties will front the remaining $4 billion to take over the land and real estate part of the deal.
While Las Vegas’s casino industry has been devastated in the last 12 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Apollo Global said they were proceeding with this deal because they believed that Las Vegas as a whole would bounce back quickly and the casino market will recover.
Las Vegas Sands Corp To Change Name
Las Vegas Sands Corp announced that since it was exiting the Las Vegas market for good, it would be dropping the Las Vegas tag to its name and now be known as just Sands Corp. The company made a strategic decision to pull out of the U.S. market because it was generating only 13 percent of its gross gaming revenues from its U.S. operations and over 80 percent of its revenues from Asia.
Sands Corp. decided to pull out of the U.S market when Adelson was alive and had given indications when it sold its Sands Bethlehem casino in 2019 to Wind Creek Hospitality that it was slowly looking to wind up operations in the United States.
Sands Corp. will now look to concentrate its efforts on its Macau casinos and iconic Marina Bay Sands casino resort in Singapore. There is also a possibility that Sands might go after an integrated resort casino license in Japan.