Associated Press
Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson said the opening of the company’s $5.5 billion Singapore casino and resort will be delayed until early next year because of problems sourcing construction materials.
The Marina Bay Sands, one of two casinos being built in Singapore, is now expected to open in January or February, Adelson said Wednesday, instead of December as the company predicted earlier this year.
“We can’t control the flow of sand to make concrete, the availability of steel or the availability of labor,” he said at a news conference in Singapore.
The Singapore casino was one of the few projects Sands continued to work on after the company was hit with a massive cash crunch, caused by the credit crisis and tumbling revenues at its Las Vegas properties. Its funding crisis forced it to suspend work on a Macau project last November and lay off as many as 11,000 workers.
Adelson declined to say if the company was cutting its revenue forecast for the Marina Bay Sands because of the weak global economy.
Singapore, facing its worst recession in decades, is hoping the casino will revive a tourism industry that’s been hit by the global economic meltdown.
He said the company’s Venetian and Palazzo casinos in Las Vegas, where it last week laid off 194 workers, have had better-than-expected business so far this summer but didn’t provide figures.
“Our results in June were significantly higher than what we expected,” Adelson said. “Our projections for the summer, while slower than previous summers, are also somewhat ahead, and we’re adjusting our internal forecasts almost every week.”
Las Vegas Sands also owns the Sands Macau, Venetian Macau and Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in Pennsylvania.