Las Vegas Sands (LVS) President and Chief Operating Officer Rob Goldstein has pointed to the lucrative premium mass segment as the primary target of the company’s US$3.3 billion expansion of Singapore integrated resort Marina Bay Sands (MBS).
Explaining the long-term plans for MBS after seeing its Singapore casino revenues decline 16.6% to US$544 million in 1Q19, Goldstein said that LVS didn’t provide the necessary room inventory to address the premium mass segment when it first opened in 2009 but revealed the development of a fourth tower, due to open by 2027, would specifically address those concerns.
“When we designed MBS about 15 years ago and we built the usual thing at that time – we built nice suites at the high-end and top tier hotel rooms for everybody else – we just couldn’t have imagined at that time the incredible power of the emerging premium mass segment,” he said during LVS’s 1Q19 earnings call. “That segment’s demanding and they should be.
“We just delivered about US$19,000, almost US$20,000 win per table in that segment in Macau this quarter and for the first time we did almost US$5 million in MBS primary from that segment. That’s where the growth is, but this opportunity in Singapore is so much bigger than even that.
“We didn’t build the right room product to this segment, we didn’t get the premium mass entertainment product they wanted. This segment, it’s a lifestyle segment. And with this expansion we take dead aim at that segment. We’re building 1,000 suites at roughly at 1,000 square feet each.”
Goldstein described the expanded MBS’s target audience as “affluent foreign tourism in Singapore” by providing the best suites and best entertainment in the region.
“This project will take Singapore and MBS to a different level,” he added. “The market for Singapore premium mass is there. It needs to be exploited.
“Singapore is an extraordinary place and its growth will keep coming. The government made a wise choice to enable this to happen and we couldn’t be more grateful or more excited.”
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