Macau’s Court of First Instance has ruled in favor of Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) in a long-running battle against its original Macau partner, Asian American Entertainment Corporation (AAEC).
According to sources, the decision was issued on Thursday and was unanimous in its findings in favor of LVS, with the court also said to have scolded AAEC for acting in bad faith. Court documents are expected to be made public in the coming days.
Headed by Taiwanese businessman Marshall Hao, AAEC had been seeking around MOP$96.5 billion (US$12.1 billion) as compensation for alleged breach of contract after LVS exited their joint bid for a Macau casino license in 2002 and linked with Galaxy Entertainment Group instead. The LVS-Galaxy bid ultimately proved successful but never came to fruition, their high-profile split leaving Galaxy with the gaming concession and LVS with Macau’s first sub-concession.
AAEC first launched legal action against Las Vegas Sands Inc, Venetian Casino Resorts LLC, and Venetian Venture Development LLC in Nevada in 2007 but the case was dismissed in 2010 on the plaintiff’s failure to prosecute the case and to retain counsel.
The company subsequently filed a suit with the Tribunal Judicial de Base in January 2019 against Venetian Macau Ltd, Las Vegas Sands Nevada, Las Vegas Sands LLC and Venetian Casino seeking MOP$3 billion (US$375 million) in damages, before dramatically increasing the claim to MOP$96.5 billion six months later. AAEC said at the time that its revised figure covered lost profits for the period from 2004 to 2018 while reserving its right to also claim for profits through to the expiration of the LVS concession in 2022.
That claim amounted to around 70% of LVS profits achieved through its Macau concession in that time.
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