Las Vegas Sands on the M&A hunt in Asia

CEO Sheldon Adelson said the company is interested in “one or two more operations” in Asia but analyst are unconvinced.

Las Vegas Sands’ Chairman and Chief Executive, Sheldon Adelson, has said the company is interested in pursuing M&A activity in Asia

“I am not going to give up developing integrated resorts. I am going to add on… to our strategic priorities,” Mr Adelson said in a conference this week when asked about possible mergers and acquisitions.

The company has already shown interest in Asian markets such as South Korea, Vietnam and Japan.

“If we can find something in Asia, we will certainly like to do that. Asia has the population most inclined to gamble. One of the reasons is… we have the best balance sheet in the industry,” Adelson said.

Adelson also said that he believes markets in Asia will recover first from the Coronavirus crisis because of the previous experience dealing with viral epidemics.

This is why Las Vegas Sands is interested in acquiring “one or more operations” in Asia.

“But of course the price has to be right,” Adelson added.

But according to Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd, Adelson’s plans are “not realistic in near term”.

“Looking at Asia we do not see any tangible acquisition opportunity outside of Macau, but we believe a Macau acquisition is extremely unlikely.

“Casinos in Association of Southeast Asian Nations are not realistic due to regulatory issues and South Korea does not allow locals gaming (and we do not believe Sands would ever choose to have a property with no locals as economics generally do not work well),” Bernstein added.