Company Reports

Dampened by industrywide seasonality and an exceptionally low VIP win rate, Sands China's second-quarter adjusted property EBITDA fell 32% quarter on quarter to USD 430 million, the lowest level in three years.

Sands China posted a solid start to 2026, with gross gaming revenue, or GGR, up 5% quarter on quarter, lifting its market share to 25.7% from 24.7%. Luck-adjusted EBITDA rose 6%, driving a modest 30-basis-point improvement in the adjusted EBITDA/GGR margin.

Sands China is a strong contender in the Macao gaming sector with a robust presence in mass, retail, and nongaming facilities, particularly in Cotai. The firm has the majority of its gaming tables in Cotai, a popular tourist spot in Macao. Cotai also has a critical mass of world-class integrated resorts that continue to take market share from casinos in the peninsula. Sands China used to place lower priority on the lower-margin VIP segment, which better positions it amid its regulatory risk. To catch up to the rising demand from the premium mass segment, Sands Cotai Central was renovated, expanded, and rebranded to the Londoner in phases through the second quarter of 2025. This will help defend its market share from its competitors.

Sands China released its full-year 2025 results, with net revenue rising 5% year on year, while adjusted property EBITDA dropped 1%. The company declared a final dividend of HKD 0.50 per share, up from HKD 0.25 a year ago, bringing the full-year dividend to HKD 0.75 per share.

Sands China is a strong contender in the Macao gaming sector with a robust presence in mass, retail, and nongaming facilities, particularly in Cotai. The firm has the majority of its gaming tables in Cotai, a popular tourist spot in Macao. Cotai also has a critical mass of world-class integrated resorts that continue to take market share from casinos in the peninsula. Sands China used to place lower priority on the lower-margin VIP segment, which better positions it amid its regulatory risk. To catch up to the rising demand from the premium mass segment, Sands Cotai Central was renovated, expanded, and rebranded to the Londoner in phases through the second quarter of 2025. This will help defend its market share from its competitors.

Sands China posted a mixed fourth-quarter result. Gross gaming revenue, or GGR, rose 10% quarter on quarter, lifting market share by 60 basis points to 24.5%, but margin pressure drove a 3% sequential decline in luck-adjusted EBITDA.

Sands China is a strong contender in the Macao gaming sector with a robust presence in mass, retail, and nongaming facilities, particularly in Cotai. The firm has the majority of its gaming tables in Cotai, a popular tourist spot in Macao. Cotai also has a critical mass of world-class integrated resorts that continue to take market share from casinos in the peninsula. Sands China used to place lower priority on the lower-margin VIP segment, which better positions it amid its regulatory risk. To catch up to the rising demand from the premium mass segment, Sands Cotai Central was renovated, expanded, and rebranded to the Londoner in phases through the second quarter of 2025. This will help defend its market share from its competitors.

Sands China delivered a solid third-quarter performance, outperforming the industry with a 7% quarter-on-quarter growth in gross gaming revenue, or GGR. This boosted its market share to 23.5%, up from 22.7% a quarter ago. The share price rose 4% following the earnings release.

Macao welcomed 1.06 million tourists during the first seven days of the 2025 national holiday, according to the Macao Government Tourism Office. This implies a daily average of 150,773 visitors, up 7.4% from a year ago.

Sands China's second-quarter gross gaming revenue, or GGR, and adjusted EBITDA rose by 6.6% and 5.8% quarter on quarter, respectively, reaching USD 1.715 billion and USD 566 million. Market share held steady at 22.5%, unchanged from the previous quarter.

The share prices of Macao casinos surged 5%-11% after the release of June gross gaming revenue on July 1, which rose sharply by 19% from a year ago to MOP 21 billion, reaching 88.5% of the 2019 level—the highest since China lifted travel restrictions in January 2023.

Sands China posted a weak set of first-quarter results, with a 2% quarter-on-quarter fall in gross gaming revenue, or GGR, to USD 1.6 billion, and a 6% decline in adjusted EBITDA to USD 535 million.

Sands China is a strong contender in the Macao gaming sector with a robust presence in mass, retail, and nongaming facilities, particularly in Cotai. The firm has the majority of its gaming tables in Cotai, a popular tourist spot in Macao. Cotai also has a critical mass of world-class integrated resorts that continue to take market share from casinos in the peninsula. Sands China used to place lower priority on the lower-margin VIP segment, which better positions it amid its regulatory risk. To catch up to the rising demand from the premium mass segment, Sands Cotai Central was renovated, expanded, and rebranded to the Londoner in phases through the second quarter of 2025. This will help defend its market share from its competitors.

Sands China has declared a final dividend of HKD 0.25 per share for 2024 results on Feb. 21, 2025. It has become the fourth Macao casino to resume its dividend program from the covid-19 disruptions, following Galaxy, MGM China, and Wynn Macau.

Sands China is a strong contender in the Macao gaming sector with a robust presence in mass, retail, and nongaming facilities, particularly in Cotai. The firm has the majority of its gaming tables in Cotai, a popular tourist spot in Macao. Cotai also has a critical mass of world-class integrated resorts that continue to take market share from casinos in the peninsula. Sands China used to place lower priority on the lower-margin VIP segment, which better positions it amid its regulatory risk. To catch up to the rising demand from the premium mass segment, Sands Cotai Central was renovated, expanded, and rebranded to the Londoner in phases through the second quarter of 2025. This will help defend its market share from its competitors.

Sands China is a strong contender in the Macao gaming sector with a robust presence in mass, retail, and nongaming facilities, particularly in Cotai. The firm has the majority of its gaming tables in Cotai, a popular tourist spot in Macao. Cotai also has a critical mass of world-class integrated resorts that continue to take market share from casinos in the peninsula. Sands China used to place lower priority on the lower-margin VIP segment, which better positions it amid its regulatory risk. To catch up to the rising demand from the premium mass segment, Sands Cotai Central was renovated, expanded, and rebranded to the Londoner in phases through the second quarter of 2025. This will help defend its market share from its competitors.

With 20% of room keys out of service due to renovation closures, Sands China's fourth-quarter gross gaming revenue fell 2.5% from a quarter earlier, implying a sharp GGR market share drop to 22.9% from 24.5% the previous quarter, and leading to a 2.4% decline in adjusted EBITDA to USD 371 million.

Narrow-moat Sands China’s third-quarter performance was slightly ahead of our and market expectations, despite the renovation disruption from phase 2 of its Londoner Macao project. With the negative impacts coming to an end in the fourth quarter, we expect the firm to reaccelerate sales growth and margin expansion from 2025. This is underpinned by the reopening of the Londoner Grand casino in September 2024 and Venetian Arena in November 2024, as well as the launch of the Londoner project in phases through the second quarter of 2025. We maintain both our earnings forecasts and fair value estimate of HKD 26.50 per share. We think the shares are slightly undervalued currently. We believe the Londoner project will help reposition the high-quality property toward premium mass and elevate the customer experience, driving additional high-value customer volume and sales.

Narrow-moat Sands China’s second-quarter performance was slightly below our and market expectations, owing to bigger-than-expected renovation disruption of its Londoner phase 2 project. Management expects the negative impacts of the renovation to peak in the third quarter, and in targeting to reopen the Venetian Arena and the Londoner Grand Casino in December 2024, and complete the whole project by second-half 2025. We think the ongoing disruptions, along with slower economic growth and sluggish consumer sentiment in China, will continue to weigh on Sands China’s near-term profit outlook. As such, we cut our fair value estimate to HKD 26.50 per share from HKD 27.30, after lowering our 2024-25 revenue forecasts by 5%-7% and adjusted EBITDA by 8%-10%. Our longer-term forecasts remain largely unchanged.

Sands China is a strong contender in the Macao gaming sector with a robust presence in mass, retail, and nongaming facilities, particularly in Cotai. The firm has the majority of its gaming tables in Cotai, a popular tourist spot in Macao. Cotai also has a critical mass of world-class integrated resorts that continue to take market share from casinos in the peninsula. Sands China used to place lower priority on the lower-margin VIP segment, which better positions it amid its regulatory risk. To catch up to the rising demand from the premium mass segment, Sands Cotai Central was renovated, expanded, and rebranded to the Londoner in phases through the second quarter of 2025. This will help defend its market share from its competitors.