Las Vegas Sands Moves Closer To Bankruptcy With Latest Share Sales

Casino Gambling Web, 11 Nov 2008, Terry Goodwin

Sheldon Adelson has been through the good times and the bad with his Las Vegas Sands Corp. company. He has watched as it has risen to the top of the casino industry, and now he is watching as the economy breaks the company apart.

In October, Adelson and his wife Miriam loaned the company $475 million. That was supposed to be the boost the company needed to stay afloat. that did not work and now Adelson is trying another approach.

On Tuesday, the company announced that has priced a public offering of 181.8 million shares at $5.50 each. The goal of the common shares sale is to raise $2.14 billion in new capital. The company desperately needs to do something with stock prices plummeting.

"This clearly is a last ditch effort by Sands to try and come up with money and stay together. Whether it succeeds or fails, the company might not be able to hold on much longer before filing for bankruptcy protection," said analyst Bob Shermat.

In addition to the common shares, Las Vegas Sands is also selling almost 5.2 million preferred shares and warrants to buy over 80 million common shares at $6 each.

The company has two locations in Macau. There are no plans for Macau to help out in the financing for Sands, which puts the company completely on their own. If they cannot come up with the financing, bankruptcy could be one of the steps that is taken down the road.

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