LV Sands Borrows to Fund Cotai Macau
Las Vegas Sands Corp., the world’s largest casino company by market value, may borrow about $7 billion to expand and refinance debt for projects in Macau, according to three people familiar with the deal.The company is in talks with lenders for the deal, which would be its biggest outstanding loan, to help fund new casinos and hotels in the former Portuguese colony, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information isn’t public. It may also replace $3.3 billion of loans taken in 2006 to finance its Venetian casino resort in the city, the people said.
The loan will help Las Vegas Sands fund $12 billion in spending on a 20,000-room hotel and casino complex in Macau, the place that overtook the Las Vegas Strip in 2006 as the world’s biggest gambling hub. Las Vegas Sands shares fell to the lowest in 2 1/2 years and have shed more than half their value in 2008.
