“We opened the Londoner Grand Casino in the last week of September. We also opened the first 300 Londoner Grand suites,” said Robert Goldstein, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands. “We will introduce more Londoner [Grand] suites… throughout the next three quarters.”

He made the remarks during a quarterly earnings call with analysts on Wednesday, after Las Vegas Sands reported a 27.6 percent year-on-year decrease in net income to US$275 million (MOP2.2 billion) in the third quarter of this year. Las Vegas Sands is the parent company of Sands China, which operates the Londoner Macao resort.

Formerly known as the Sheraton Grand with around 4,000 hotel rooms, the property has undergone a transformation and rebranding into the Londoner Grand, now boasting 2,405 rooms and suites—consisting of 1,500 suites and 905 rooms—alongside the Londoner Grand Casino.

“We hope to be above 1,000 new suites, at least, by Chinese New Year in January, and then it just ramps up until May or the middle of the second quarter to the full inventory of 2,400 keys,” said Grant Chum, president and chief executive officer of Sands China, during the earnings call discussing the Londoner Grand.

Despite the operational disruptions stemming from the renovation of the Londoner Grand during the last two quarters of this year, Chum remains optimistic about how this revamped hotel tower can bolster the performance of the Londoner Macao resort and Sands China as a whole in the upcoming year.

“We’re very confident that the Londoner Grand and the whole Londoner Macao will deliver as we roll out… [this] top product at [an] unprecedented scale,” he said, emphasising that over 60 percent of the room offerings at the Londoner Macao will comprise suites. “There’s really no building like it in our industry in terms of that scale of quality and offerings.”

Reopening of Venetian Arena in November

In the third quarter of 2024, Sands China reported a net income of US$268 million, reflecting a 9 percent increase from the preceding three-month period and a 16 percent year-on-year surge.

During the earnings call on Wednesday, senior executives delved into the ongoing refurbishment of the 15,000-seat arena at the Venetian Macau, another Cotai resort under Sands China’s management. This venue, one of the largest indoor event spaces in Macau, previously known as the Cotai Arena, has been undergoing upgrades since earlier this year and has been rebranded as the Venetian Arena.

“We are progressing very well with the construction, the upgrade for the Venetian Arena,” said Goldstein. “It will relaunch towards the end of November into December, and we already have the first events lined up in terms of entertainment [and] sports.”

According to the Venetian Macau’s website, three concerts are slated to take place at the Venetian Arena before the year’s end. These include performances by mainland Chinese pop star Diamond Zhang on 23 November, Hong Kong singer Panther Chan on 30 November, and Grammy-nominated artist Charlie Puth on 14 December.

“We’re very excited to have the Venetian Arena fully upgraded. I think it’s going to be great for entertainment, sports [and] MICE [meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions] events,” Goldstein continued. “It’s really serving multiple segments and boosting the diversification drive in Macau.”

Macau gaming emerges as an “outperformer”

Attention was also drawn to the macroeconomy of Mainland China, the reduced spending power of mainland customers, and the recent stimulus packages introduced by Beijing to bolster the economy at the Wednesday earnings call.

Addressing the impact on the retail sector, including high-end retail, due to these factors, Goldstein remarked, “It has not been a similar path for gaming in Macau. Macau is showing growth, [a] double-digit growth in the [third] quarter.”

Government data indicates that Macau’s total gross gaming revenue for the third quarter of 2024 reached MOP55.6 billion, marking a marginal 1.5 percent decline from the previous quarter but a robust 13.9 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

“Overall, we should acknowledge… Macau’s gaming is a very big outperformer in the whole consumer universe in the region right now, and that’s powered by the premium segment where we are extremely well placed with the great products that we bring online,” Chum added.

“We have confidence in the Chinese Mainland economic future, and we’ll continue to invest in Macau’s future,” he continued. “Macau will stand to benefit once economic activities return to normal.”

No radical change amid leadership transition

As the city’s former top judge, Sam Hou Fai, prepares to assume office as the new Macau Chief Executive on 20 December, senior executives from Las Vegas Sands and Sands China foresee continuity in the city’s gaming policies without “radical change”.

“What has been emphasised so far is that Macau really aims to diversify [and] we should invest in non gaming,” said Wilfred Wong, executive vice chairman of Sands China. “I think these directions will remain… [and] we should be able to continue to operate favourably in Macau,” he added.