金沙集團 (LVS) 2026 年第三季法說會：澳門市占率成長，高端市場疲軟

重點提要

• 金沙集團 (Las Vegas Sands) 表示，新加坡與澳門的高端需求疲軟拖累了 2026 年第三季業績，部分頂級客戶造訪頻率有所降低。管理層表示該季度的情況屬特例，並非其亞洲長期成長論述發生改變。
• 濱海灣金沙 (Marina Bay Sands) 產生了 5.9 億美元的 EBITDA。若按預期的貴賓廳勝率（rolling-play hold）計算，EBITDA 本應為 5.94 億美元，顯示勝率不利帶來了 400 萬美元的負面影響。
• 澳門業務的 EBITDA 為 5.29 億美元，而按預期貴賓廳勝率計算則為 5.18 億美元。金沙中國在澳門中場博彩收入的市占率達到 26.1%，創下 2023 年第四季以來的最高水準。
• 澳門博彩業務在所有主要領域均實現成長：貴賓廳轉碼數（rolling volume）年增 31%，中場籌碼下注額（non-rolling drop）成長 11%，角子機與電子桌遊投注額則增加 26%。
• LVS 在本季回購了 9.5 億美元的股票。過去 12 個季度中，該公司已註銷了 19% 的流通在外股數，並計劃自 2027 年第一季起將每季股利提高 20% 至每股 0.36 美元。
• 管理層繼續將投資優先分配給高端客群設施。澳門威尼斯人的翻修工程預計於 2028 年農曆春節前完成，而新加坡的新開發項目若取得政府批准，預計將於 2031 年初開幕。

核心財務數據

業務與營運表現

新加坡

儘管部分極高價值客戶的造訪減少，加上部分業務的勝率不利，濱海灣金沙仍保持極高獲利能力。管理層指出 7 月和 9 月表現特別疲軟，但表示客戶對設施的反響以及底層博彩交易量依舊穩健。

管理層繼續將濱海灣金沙視為具備每年約 27 億至 28 億美元 EBITDA 年化營運率產出能力的物業。這代表管理層對常態化獲利能力的評估，而非新發布的季度預測。

規劃中的新加坡擴建項目預計開發成本為 80 億美元，其中包括 20 億美元的土地溢價。該項目將新增高端套房、娛樂與 MICE 設施，以及一個根據舞台配置可容納約 15,000 個座位的場館。管理層表示，雖然仍有大量的採購工作且需密切關注通膨，但很大一部分的建設支出已鎖定。

澳門

金沙中國在業務量增長方面超越了澳門整體博彩市場，並在各個領域均奪得收入市占率。管理層將此改善歸因於產品升級、賭檯營業時間延長、銷售與接待人員增加、服務水準提升以及優化的客戶回饋計劃。

底層需求指標包括入場人數實現雙位數成長、物業造訪人次成長個位數高段，以及零售租戶銷售額年增 10%。角子機與電子桌遊收入成長 18%，相較之下澳門整體市場增長為 9%。

營業費用上升限制了 EBITDA 的轉化率。然而，管理層表示固定費用與上季基本持平，因為近期的員工增員已反映在第二季與第三季中。除了潛在的生活成本薪資調整外，公司目前預計不會進一步大幅增加員工人數。

威尼斯人的翻修工程於 3 月展開。約有 600 間翻修完成的客房已恢復供應，而第三季約有 400 間客房暫停開放。管理層預計下一季度將有約 500 間客房暫停開放。客戶對翻修後套房的初步回饋超出了公司預期。

管理層展望

管理層維持其澳門季度 EBITDA 至少達到 7 億美元的長期目標。實現該目標取決於產品與營運舉措的完成，以及澳門市場未來的成長。

威尼斯人預計將於 2028 年農曆春節前完成翻新並重新亮相，其中包括專為高端客戶設計的新博彩沙龍及相關設施。澳門的其他資本項目包括康萊德酒店的翻新與品牌重塑，以及與金沙中國專營權承諾相關的植物園加速推進項目。

在新加坡方面，管理層維持新開發項目將於 2031 年初開幕的預期，尚待取得所需的政府批准。公司預計高端套房、場館和擴建的 MICE 設施將同時對新開發項目及現有的濱海灣金沙綜合體提供支持。

相較於股利，股票回購預計仍將是資本回報的主要組成部分。管理層表示，回購將繼續採取擇機策略，並在公司的投資級信用評等與開發承諾之間保持平衡。

風險與關注焦點

• 新加坡與澳門的高端客戶造訪量均有所疲軟，管理層無法歸因於單一原因。
• 討論的潛在因素包括更廣泛的宏觀經濟不確定性、世界盃以及涉及中國境外財富的政策顧慮，不過管理層未對其各自的影響進行量化。
• 博彩勝率波動影響了這兩個市場。濱海灣金沙遇到了不利的勝率，而澳門的 EBITDA 則受益於貴賓廳勝率，儘管澳門倫敦人的高端中場勝率表現疲軟。
• 澳門市場競爭依然激烈，推廣或客戶回饋強度未見明顯下降。管理層同時表示，未觀察到競爭加劇的情況。
• 在翻修後的高端產品完全竣工前，金沙中國正承擔較高的員工成本，這延緩了營運槓桿效應的顯現。
• 新加坡的部分擴建成本仍受制於未來的採購及可能發生的建設成本通膨。

分析師問答重點

高端客群需求疲軟是結構性的嗎？ 管理層表示，本季度並未反映出新加坡或澳門的底層獲利能力。管理層指出，亞洲持續的財富創造、強勁的客戶業務量，以及較為年輕的新興高端客戶成長，都是維持其長期觀點的原因。

若需求持續疲軟，澳門的營業費用會縮減嗎？ 管理層表示，公司正為未來成長進行投資，而非縮減近期的招聘。員工正接受培訓，以迎接新設及翻新的高端設施啟用。

為何在業績疲軟的一季後，仍要在新加坡擴增高端設施容量？ 公司表示，濱海灣金沙在尖峰時段已面臨容量瓶頸。管理層預計新增套房將能容納更多高價值客戶，並將大型場館視為帶動娛樂觀光與 MICE 需求的驅動力。

澳門的客戶回饋政策有何變化？ 金沙中國表示，在擴大市占率的同時，已逐季降低客戶回饋強度。管理層預計，若市場營收成長走強，產業的客戶回饋強度將更自然地趨於溫和。

LVS 是否考慮進行併購或私有化？ 管理層表示，公司專注於回購 LVS 及金沙中國的股票，而非尋求併購。同時也表示目前無意將 LVS 私有化。

電話會議完整逐字稿

完整財報電話會議逐字稿

管理層陳述

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Sands' Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to hand the floor over to your host, Mr. Daniel Briggs, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

Daniel Briggs

Thank you. Joining the call today are Patrick Dumont, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Wilfred Wong, Executive Vice Chairman of Sands China; and Grant Chum, CEO and President of Sands China; and EVP of Asia Operations.

Today's conference call will contain forward-looking statements. We will be making those statements under the safe harbor provision of federal securities laws. The language on forward-looking statements included in our press release also applies to our comments made on the call today. The company's actual results may differ materially from the results reflected in those forward-looking statements. In addition, we will discuss non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP financial measure are included in our press release. We have posted an earnings presentation on our website. We will refer to that presentation during the call. Finally, for the Q&A session, we ask those with interest to please pose one question and one follow-up, so we might allow everyone with interest the opportunity to participate. This presentation is being recorded.

I'll now turn the call over to Patrick.

Patrick Dumont

Thanks, Dan. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining the call. I want to start with a few summary points. We remain confident in our long-term strategy in both Singapore and Macao, and we'll continue to invest for future growth. We have a long-term view on economic growth in Asia. We believe the trends of economic growth in wealth creation will continue into the future. Our goal is to position our property portfolio to capitalize on the growing demand of premium travel and world-class entertainment experiences in Asia. We were fortunate to have the balance sheet and cash flow strength to support our meaningful capital investment program.

Turning to our quarterly results. The high end was softer in both of our markets this quarter, which negatively impacted our reported financial results. Despite this, we delivered strong financial results at Greater Bay Sands in Singapore, generating EBITDA of $590 million for the quarter. If we had held as expected in our rolling play, our EBITDA would have been $4 million higher or $594 million. Singapore remains an ideal market for high-value tourism. Our focus on creating unique and memorable entertainment and hospitality experience for our customers continues to generate industry-leading financial performance. We believe that growth in tourism in Singapore will continue over the long term.

Our financial results continue to reflect the elevation of Marina Bay Sands structural earnings power following our significant product investments, sweep renovations, service enhancements and the execution of our premium customer strategy.

Looking further ahead, we remain enthusiastic about the additional growth opportunities presented by our new development project in Singapore, which will be directly adjacent to Marina Bay Sands. And it will meaningfully increase our premium suite capacity, service and entertainment offerings and will include the introduction of a state-of-the-art arena and vision to be the finest in Asia. We remain on track with the development process and look forward to opening our new development in early 2031, subject to the required government approvals.

Let's turn to Macao. We delivered $529 million of EBITDA for the quarter. If we had held as expected in our rolling play, our EBITDA would have been $11 million lower or $518 million. Sands China's growth in gaming revenues and volumes meaningfully outperformed the Macao market overall. We are encouraged by our progress there. Our market share of Macao mass gaming revenue reached 26.1% for the quarter, our strongest performance since the fourth quarter of 2023. When compared to the third quarter of 2025, we delivered growth in gaming volumes across all segments. Rolling volume was up 31% year-over-year. Our non-rolling drop was up 11% year-over-year, and slot ETG handle was up 26% year-over-year. We believe these improvements are indicative of our progress in product and service level improvements.

I would also like to highlight our approach to reinvestment in Macao has remained consistent over the last several quarters. Our goal is to remain consistent with our reinvestment strategy going forward and to achieve greater profitability as revenues grow in the future. With respect to operating expenses, as we mentioned last quarter, we have elected over the last year to invest in additional table operating hours, increased sales, marketing and customer service personnel and enhanced levels of customer service. We continue to believe these investments are critical to the achievement of our long-term objectives. These objectives are providing outstanding service and hospitality to our customers and creating unique and memorable experiences. We are continuing to invest in Macao, and we are focused on the highest return projects over the next 3 years to create the best opportunities to increase cash flow.

Through our capital investment program, we are reorienting our Macao portfolio to address the most profitable segments. The renovation of the Venetian, which commenced in March is progressing. We expect to have the Venetian refreshed and reintroduced by Chinese New Year 2028, along with new premium focused gaming salons and related amenities. Macao remains the largest gaming market in the world, and we believe the market will grow and reach new heights in the years ahead. We retain our goal of reaching $700 million in quarterly EBITDA and more over time as we fully implement our investment and operating strategies and as the Macao market grows in the future. Regarding our programs return capital to shareholders, we repurchased $950 million of LVS stock during the quarter.

We have now repurchased 19% of the company's outstanding shares over the last 12 quarters. We have approximately [ $5 billion ] remaining on the $6 billion repurchase authorization from our Board approved in [ July. ] We believe additional repurchases of LVS equity through our share repurchase program will be meaningfully accretive to the company and its shareholders over the long term. We also paid our recurring quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share during the quarter. In addition, our board has approved a 20% increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.36 per share beginning in the first quarter of 2027. We also purchased additional shares of SCL during the quarter, the company's ownership percentage of SCL has reached 75.6% as of September 30, 2026. We look forward to continuing to utilize the company's share repurchase and recurring dividend programs to increase returns to shareholders.

Thanks again for joining the call today and for your interest in the company. Now let's take some questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question is coming from Dan Politzer from JPMorgan.

分析師問答

Daniel Politzer

Patrick, first off, I think in your prepared remarks, you alluded to some incremental softness in Macao and Singapore, particularly at the high end of the market. Can you maybe break down how much of that -- the recent step down do you attribute to macro or cyclical factors versus any behavioral shift among that high-end customer base, particularly pertaining to some of the Chinese offshore wealth tax strategies or collections.

Patrick Dumont

Yes. So first off, I do want to point out that there was softness at the high end in both of our markets. And so that was really the story for the quarter for us. I think we made a lot of strides in the things that we're trying to improve and create better experience for our customers. But when the customers don't show up, it's a little problematic. I think to sort of address your question in terms of Asia macro, there are a bunch of things going on globally that may have an impact on terms of visitation, how people think about tourism or just the spending during the quarter. I also want to point out that the World Cup final was July 19. So that did happen. There are many things in the global environment generally that created a lot of uncertainty in the quarter. And just one certainty is introduced into people's lives and how they think about tourism, it may change their behaviors. So I can't really point to one thing that I would tell you that was the cause. We feel pretty confident that the future will not be impacted by this. just knowing what our customers like to do, and how frequent they show up, and what we have on our offer. So we feel pretty good about how we're positioned. We also don't base our decisions on these cycles. We have a long-term view on growth in Asia. We really believe fundamentally that the trends of economic growth and wealth creation are there, and we believe that they will continue in the future. And that's really what we're focused on. But this quarter was definitely aberrational in that regard.

Daniel Politzer

Got it. And just on Macao specifically, you've been through several stages of improvement in Macao, right? You improved your properties, you've been promoting a little bit more at a more competitive level, and now you're even investing in increasing your service. So where do you think you are in terms of the OpEx increases in Macao, just given, obviously, there's concern on kind of the growth outlook for the market and kind of where you sit in the expense structure?

Patrick Dumont

So first off, I think we're in early days in terms of our product repositioning, and I think that's really important. So as we get great product online and these high-value customers come to our properties because of it, the service will really matter. But that will also grow our revenues, our gross gaming revenue and our EBITDA. And so just structurally, we're positioning ourselves to grow as we bring these products online, which address the segment that is there and that is strong. We just don't have all the product that we want to address it. I will tell you that we're making progress as evidenced by our volume growth. The drag on our EBITDA was higher expenses. And the reinvestment strategy that we have, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, is consistent. So it's really -- as we continue to grow revenues, we'll gain operating leverage, and we'll see more flow through. Grant, I don't know if you have any other comments or anything you'd like to highlight?

Kwan Chum

I think the most important point for the quarter is we're able to gain revenue share across all segments whilst controlling the reinvestment. As Patrick referenced, we've remained very consistent in the reinvestment strategy. We have optimized the program significantly over the last 9 months. and we've been able to gain share partly because we've been able to invest back into the customer experience, both in terms of service levels as well as our event calendar. So I think you're seeing some of the positive progress that we're making in that regard. With respect to operating expenses, I think we've talked about this before in the last quarter. We've been increasing our payroll as we've hired more gaming staff for the additional table hours as well as the sales distribution and then also the hospitality our staff to enhance the service levels. We see now that this cost increase is embedded in second quarter and third quarter, and I would say that sequentially, we are essentially flat in terms of fixed expenses, and we would expect, obviously, the payroll would inflate by the cost of living adjustment analysis next year. but we don't anticipate a significant increase in headcount from this point on.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Lizzie Dove from Goldman Sachs.

Elizabeth Dove

On Singapore, again, I'm wondering in terms of your comments of, has anything changed about what you see as the run rate quarterly for this business? And I know there was a period of time where it was $700 million hold adjusted plus or minus. Has anything changed there? And on the point of whether this is kind of temporary or change more structurally. Anything you can share in terms of cadence throughout the quarter, whether that got better post World Cup or even anything in terms of kind of any October rebound.

Patrick Dumont

Thank you. So in mind, nothing has changed. This is a $2.7 billion, $2.8 billion run rate property in my mind. That's where we're focused. I think this quarter was operational. There were a bunch of things that happened in this quarter, that we thought were unusual. And then I also feel like some of the sentiment out of the market are our highest end players, they didn't visit. So I think for us, this is something where product is still strong. Response is still strong from the customers. We still have a view about that sort of baseline of EBITDA range that I just talked about and hopefully growing from there in the future. That's really what we're focused on. I think there was a particular softness in both July and September, just as you look across the quarter. But we feel pretty good about how we're positioned going forward in Q4.

Elizabeth Dove

Got it. And then just one follow-up. Obviously, a really big repurchase number this quarter that's kind of been ramping in the last few quarters. Is this kind of the new run rate would you say as you still kind of work through these challenges in Singapore and Macao, or how should we kind of think about any changes in terms of capital returns?

Patrick Dumont

Yes. So first off, I just want to say that we see meaningful value in both LVS and SCL equity, and we're going to continue to act on this belief. So you saw that in full display this quarter. We intend to continue excess returns sorry, excess cash flow to shareholders with the repurchases representing like the larger portion of our overall capital return, so even more of the dividend. You've heard us on prior calls. We've been focused on treating the share count over time. It's because we see meaningful value in LVS and SCL that we're acting so strongly. We see really long-term value creation and our ability to compound earnings and free cash flow growth per share just by reducing the share count, particularly at current prices. And our free cash flow and excess cash balance provides flexibility for us to opportunistically increase the amount of share repurchase based on market conditions, and that's what we did this quarter. And so for us, I think we really understand the importance of share repurchases, but we also understand the importance of maintaining our investment grade rating, which we view as a competitive advantage. So as you kind of think about it, we intend to stay within what we articulated previously in terms of our gross leverage target of approximately 2x or 3x. But this is before the impact of any development related that. So when you think about share repurchases, we sort of think about it like cash on hand, how do we think about return of capital, and how aggressive can we be based on the market, and you saw that this quarter.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Shaun Kelley from Bank of America.

Shaun Kelley

Patrick or Grant whoever is right to answer this. I want to go back to Singapore for a moment. And just ask, Patrick, you mentioned a couple of times behavioral changes out there. I think one thing that jumps out in the numbers is mass market hold the volume looks pretty good actually, but the whole number kind of set back to levels that we haven't seen in a couple of years. So is the behavior aberration that we're seeing just that perhaps people are not feeling as good about the market and they're kind of getting up from sessions earlier or acting a little differently at the tables themselves? Or is it more of, again, a direct traffic issue? And sort of why would that be weighing on maybe that that hold figure given that, again, the volume numbers -- even the VIP volume number wasn't that far out of whack relative to what we've seen in the last quarter or two?

Patrick Dumont

Yes. It's really -- it's an interesting thing. I will tell you over the last couple of years as we introduced the side bets, there was the opportunity for players to have a little more volatility, but for us to hold a little bit better. I think what happened in rebate Sands is we just didn't hold well during the quarter. And if you sort of look at that, it's very different from a year ago. And so that will impact our margin and our earnings. So that hold was meaningful. But the good news is the door swings both ways, right? There are times like a year ago in that quarter, we held really strongly. And the great thing is the volumes are there, the customers are there. We had a lot of high-value patrons at our highest levels, just not show up this quarter at certain points, and if you just don't get that revenue back. So from our standpoint, volumes were good. We missed some customers, but did impact our quarter. But the good news is in the future, hopefully it won't. That's the nature of our business. And when you have less offsetting play, the volatility on the bed size matters. And so for us, having these very high-value patrons that come in [ come in ] at Sands, is very specialized casino with the best patrons in the world in our view, concentrated at the high end, there's volatility, both on the mass side and on the rolling side. And if you go to Page 11 in our deck, we lay out our AC hold, our smart table, and you can see that volatility, and that's driven, to some extent, as we said on prior calls, by patron decisions, and how they choose to wager. But on the mass side, we just we didn't hold as well as we did in prior year. But -- and it did impact us for the quarter. But hopefully, in the future, we'll continue to hold in a positive point.

Shaun Kelley

And just my follow-up would be, maybe, Grant, you little bit longer-term perspectives on what's happening as it relates to the offshore trust issue. I think this has been a very common topic discussed for perhaps a broader weaker market environment. So my question to you is just you agree with that? Do you think this is changing behaviors over there? And more importantly, do you think temporary moment in time as it relates to once that window kind of like stops, I think is in the next day or so that perhaps behavior normalizes a bit with some of those mainland customers?

Kwan Chum

Shaun, I think in reality, we've had many, many different policy changes, new initiatives that have, to varying degrees, impacted the Macao market, to a great or lesser extent over the years. I don't think we can make a judgment on specific measures that you just referenced. What we can say is that during the quarter, the premium segment was a little softer, but there was also plenty of indicators certainly in the San China portfolio to indicate that the underlying demand is still very solid and very deep. We had double-digit growth in patron count. We had high single-digit growth in property visitations like Patrick referenced, we had very strong gaming volume growth across all segments. Of course, some of that is market share gain. But we see in our portfolio, pockets of strength in all segments. This quarter, we were able to capture some of the super high in the premium mass. Unfortunately, we played a little unlucky and that affected our London whole percentage and EBITDA and margin. But overall, we saw good progress there. We also experienced strong mid-tier and base mass growth in the properties that are more geared towards those segments. So we're able to significantly outgrow the market at the Parisian and the Sands Macao and also by product segment, you can see that our slot ETG segment grew 18% year-over-year in revenue. That's double the rate of the market growth of 9% in the overall Macao market. And then lastly, when you look at a weaker consumption backdrop in China, our retail tenant sales growth still achieved 10% year-on-year growth, and it was a mixture of strength in different luxury segments as well as the mass retail segments. So overall, we see a lot of positive still in the underlying demand in visiting Macao and spending there. But yes, the spend per visitor, some of that has softened, particularly at the high end.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Brandt Montour from Barclays.

Brandt Montour

So I wanted to ask about the high end, just more -- maybe more drilling in on Macao versus Singapore. It's hard for us to tell how much overlap you have between the high and guests at Macao versus Singapore? Are you seeing any differences in behaviors between those two sets of inbound consumer or players. Length of stay, booking lead time sort of maybe differences in the exit rate coming out of the third quarter that makes you kind of more favorable on one toward the other here.

Patrick Dumont

It's a great question. Just to sort of highlight. So rebate Sands has a catchment area that is Southeast Asia. So if you think about who comes as luxury inbound tourists into Singapore. A lot of that is driven by Southeast Asian people who have been successful. So Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the surrounding areas, Cambodia, South Korea and some Japan. And so the catchment area there is different from what you have in Macao, where the vast majority of visitors come from China or Hong Kong. And so on the super high end, there is some back and forth, but not a whole lot of overlap. And so the sentiment is -- was consistent in both, but we don't know if it's the same reason or say a multitude of reasons or different reasons. We just know that we have a lot of very high-end patrons who just weren't visiting it frequently. And so that's what we saw this quarter in both places. I will tell you that this quarter, in our view, does not represent the true earnings power of our properties in both Marina Bay Sands or in Singapore -- excuse me, or in Macao. So long term, this is something that we think is particularly this quarter, and we see strength coming out of it.

Kwan Chum

I think you covered it, I believe.

Brandt Montour

And then on Macao, thinking about the fourth quarter, just seasonally, last fourth quarter, you had a hit from the NBA year 1, this will be NBA year 2 this year. I imagine that maybe there's been some refinement in terms of -- or maybe the question, has there been some refinement in the way that you're setting up operations for that? And how does that affect how we should think about fourth quarter seasonality, all else equal for the calendar.

Kwan Chum

Thanks for the question. First of all, the NBA event was a tremendous success this year. It was across a number of categories and even more successful games week than a highly successful one in 2025. We will discuss the financials of that in January, but from, I think, all of the media, the social media and the reporting on the week, I think you can see just how successful it was for the entire city across not just the excitement of the basket ball, but also the activations we had across the whole resort in the fan zone, in the mice events and all of the different brand partners that came to Macao to promote their product and services in Macao. If you talk about the seasonality of fourth quarter, typically, it is a relatively stronger quarter for Macao because of the October Golden Week and now also a lengthened golden week as a result of the NBA games week. And then typically, December will also be relatively strong. So the seasonality would point to a stronger third quarter and stronger fourth quarter compared to the second quarter. And then as to how this plays out in the current market conditions where we've had a few months of contracting or growth that remains to be seen. But from a pure seasonality point of view, it is going to be typically a stronger quarter.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Robin Farley from UBS.

Robin Farley

That actually covered a lot of my questions about some of the dynamics between Macao and Singapore. I guess my only other question is you talked about OpEx increasing staffing hours with the tables and hospitality and sales. Just given the -- that maybe it's unclear if it's not entirely clear what the factors are causing this softness. Is that something you would revisit those OpEx levels to maybe be more in line with the trends here? Because I think I think it looks like October will be kind of month #5, maybe with year-over-year down in Macau. So just how do you think about those OpEx levels potentially needing to be adjusted.

Patrick Dumont

We're actually focused on investment for growth, not on cutting our personnel that we just hired. I think we're very excited about the future of Macao. And the way we're sort of looking to make all this converge is we're underweight in our investment cycle to renovate and create higher-value products for our patrons. But we need the people to run them. We need the team members to operate them to be successful. So we've hired those teams now, so we can train them, get them up to speed and make sure they're offering seamless for all the service and focused on our customers and in our culture in a very strong way as the time the product comes online. And so it's a simultaneous story of capital investment to create the products from the rooms that we have, the suites that we have and the space that we have in Macao to a higher level to attract these higher-value patrons. And at the same time, train and create the opportunities for them to be in our property and have the experiences they need to come back and to spend. And so we have to do both. And so while we're carrying this additional OpEx, we actually view this as part of the additional investment we need in the future to grow and address the most important segments that are coming to Macao today.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Stephen Grambling from Morgan Stanley.

Stephen Grambling

I wanted to dig in on the CapEx plans a little bit? Just starting with Macao. I'm curious, how is your view of what is maintenance versus growth CapEx evolved? And perhaps where you see ROI moving to and where the best returns may be had as you think about where you're spending? And then on Singapore, kind of a related question, as we think about the $8 billion spend and the potential returns on the next project. How do you think about bookends both in terms of ultimate construction costs and returns and what might weigh that one way or another.

Kwan Chum

Stephen, I'll take the question on Macao CapEx. If you look at our portfolio, which is we started developing the buildings from 2004 to now, our depreciation charge is somewhere in the region of $750 million to $800 million. So spending around $300 million. Our maintenance CapEx is reasonable, and that's reflected in the deck on Slide 21 of Dan's deck. In terms of the development CapEx, if you look at our number for 2027, there are really 3 key projects that we can reference. Firstly, we have the highest ROI projects in there, which, in our minds, include the Venetian renovation, then as well as the Conrad renovation and rebranding into a London a themed hotel. Those are the most critical projects for us if we are to continue in our product investment and innovation to capture the most important segments in the market. Then there is a third flagship project, which is for the concession commitment, which is, as you know, we have a Botanic Garden project that we are looking to accelerate and bring into Macao earlier than we had previously anticipated. And we're making good progress on design. It is going to be one of the most innovative and new tourism landmarks in Macao. So we're very excited to bring that forward and deliver that for the city over the coming years.

Patrick Dumont

And in regards to Singapore, I don't think there's a better market to deploy capital in scale in our industry at the highest end. So in Page 29 of our deck, we sort of laid out the MBS expansion project development costs. I do want to highlight that of the $8 billion, $2 billion is actually land premiums, and in effect, you can advertise over time. But we just wanted to include everything related to development. The other thing is we're spending a very significant amount on an arena which will be what we hope is the most important live entertainment venue in the region. It will be technologically advanced. It will have the IT areas, hospitality areas, that are more akin to what you'd see at the top arenas in the U.S. versus ones that are in Asia, and that will be a differentiator. The other thing is it will be integrated and connected to all the amenities of the Marina Bay Sands program. And so for us, the ability to use this area not only for live entertainment and to draw tourism into Singapore, which has been evidenced by Taylor Swift and by other large performances that have occurred there, but also to use it as a MICE space and to use it for other forms of entertainment is very powerful. So when you look at the way we think about returns here, it will not only benefit the new developments and the new tower we're building. but it will also enhance the way that we draw a high-value tourists into Singapore to benefit Marina Bay Sands. And actually the surrounding area and the Marina Bay precinct. So the way we think about returns is that this will be very positive, right? If the market continues the way that it is today, and we have these conditions, we believe this will be very successful. And we believe very strongly in the future growth of high-value tourism to Singapore because of the focus of the government there. and the work that they've done and their continued investment and great tours of assets and connectivity to the surrounding region. We think we're in a great position to take advantage of the, call it, the structural benefits of being in Singapore and the long-term prospects for wealth creation in Asia and the importance of Singapore in that. And so for us, the returns, we believe will be very strong. And we think that having the connectivity back to the arena from Marina Bay Sands and our MICE facility will only enhance those offerings as well.

Stephen Grambling

Fair enough. That's helpful. Maybe one very quick follow-up would just be how much of the construction costs are kind of locked in at this point? Or is there some wiggle room that could happen as we look closer to the opening?

Patrick Dumont

Yes. I think right now, I think what you're asking is, is there inflation because of the current market environment. We haven't seen it yet, but we're monitoring it closely. So a good portion of it is locked in, but there's still a lot to buy. So we're being very thoughtful and very cautious now about the current conditions and how we look to approach some of the fit-out costs and some of the construction costs that we have to deal with.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Steve Pizzella from Deutsche Bank.

Steven Pizzella

On reinvestment in Macao, can you talk about what you're seeing in the market from a competitive standpoint? Has that changed at all over the last couple of quarters.

Kwan Chum

Thank you for the question. The market remains very competitive. That is no secret. We, on the other hand, have continued to optimize our investment program. That's been a focus strategy since the first quarter of the year. And we are achieving sequentially a lower level reinvestment and capturing higher market share. So we will continue in that effort. As Patrick said, we will remain consistent in our approach we obviously have to respond if market dynamic competition and reinvestment levels changed significantly. At this point, we don't see it, but that's not to say the market is not competitive. It remains highly competitive, but we haven't seen significant escalation in the reinvestment levels, and that's why we've been able to do what we're doing, which is to optimize reinvestment, maintain or reduce and, at the same time, continue to gain market share.

Steven Pizzella

Okay. That's helpful. And then just staying in Macao, wondering if you would be able to help us think about with the size of the World Cup impact was the last couple of quarters as we think about the normalized run rates here.

Kwan Chum

It's difficult to pinpoint. It's very clear that we had a sharper decline in June and July than we did in August and September. That's about all we can say at this point.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Peter Supino from Wolfe Research.

Unknown Analyst

Question about the Venetian renovation. I'm wondering if -- as that renovation has progressed, have any of the renovated rooms return to inventory? And if so, are you seeing any early impact especially on higher-value gaming activity.

Patrick Dumont

I will tell you that, anecdotally, the response has been very strong. I'll let Grant give some additional comments. But I think for us, our credit to our design team and our development team for the high quality of work they're doing, and their ability to identify what's advanced in the market and what the market feels is very luxurious and aspirational because the response has been very strong not only in this renovation, but in other renovations we've been doing. So we're very pleased about the progress of our capital investments and where our portfolio is headed in terms of aesthetics, design and aspiration. And I'll turn it over to Grant.

Kwan Chum

It's still very early days, but Patrick is absolutely right. We've received very strong feedback from the customers who have experienced the new suites from a design, from a functionality. Of course, it's actually is an iconic hotel suite layout that Sheldon brought to Macao. It's famous for its spacious layout. Everyone knows this room. And that presents an exciting opportunity for us because when this is awfully upgraded and renovated and modernized, it's going to do even better than it has been doing in the last few years. If you look at the rooms out of inventory, we had about 400 rooms out this quarter. It will increase slightly to about $500 million next quarter as we continue to renovate including the multi-bay Paiza suites. But the initial feedback from the rooms that have come back, which is around 600 has really been, I would say, surpass our initial expectations. And you can see also that we have been managing this renovation better in terms of customer mix, and we've seen that sequential improvement in mass revenue at Venetian versus second quarter. So we'll continue -- and the team will continue to manage the rest of the program, but we are very excited at the prospect of having all of these new suites back in -- by early 2028.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Steve Wieczynski from Stifel.

Steven Wieczynski

Patrick, two bigger picture questions for you. So first of all, you talked about your balance sheet at this point, your investment-grade balance sheet, giving you somewhat of an advantage relative to some of your peers. So wondering with where overall gaming valuations currently are, which obviously is somewhat depressed, maybe give us your updated thoughts in terms of your appetite for M&A at this point?

Patrick Dumont

I think we're really interested in buying more of our company. I think we have great assets. We're in the two best markets. We feel really strongly about the future of the Asian economic growth and wealth creation story. And so our share repurchases are focused on owning more of the great LVS assets that Sheldon built for us. we've been blessed with these assets that are in very privileged markets, very special markets with unbelievable catchment areas and just a huge amount of investment going on around them and is creating economic growth. So for us, I think we're focused on owning more of LVS and not really focused on M&A.

Steven Wieczynski

Got you. And then, Patrick, I think the answer is going to be no to this. But as you look at Macao today, and where visitation levels are, spend levels are. Do you think the market at this point has too much gaming capacity and is somewhat oversaturated? Or do you believe you're we are just essentially just stuck in this bubble, and the market is clearly down the road in a position to use the existing capacity that is currently in place.

Patrick Dumont

So first off, I think both markets would benefit long term from more high-level hospitality capacity. I think that will only help both markets grow over time. I think when you think about Macao and you realize the number of hotel rooms that are there and you realize that its catchment area is China and Hong Kong, it feels like it's undersupplied. So from our standpoint, it's it's something where we have to focus on bring more high-value tourists into the Macao market over time. The higher value segments and premium customers are out there in size, but they have to have the right experience available and know that it's there. And so it starts with great product. It starts with great service and all the range of luxury amenities that we have. So in my mind, it's not that it's a capacity issue, it's that we have this great product. It needs to be globally competitive. Our high-end customers are very sophisticated. They know great hotel rooms. They know great restaurants. They know great retail. They know great entertainment. And so we have to present all of that to be competitive. And so for us, it's not a question about capacity being too small. It's a question about what type of capacity is there and how competitive are we globally for high-value tourists and how do we invest to ensure that those tourists choose us over anyone else whenever they think about a trip. And for a lot of these customers, it's pretty frequent. They're very affluent. They travel a lot. They enjoy what Macao has. They love what Singapore has. And for us, it's about making sure we capture their attention, and we capture their tourism dollars. And for me, it's not really a supply issue because all the supply, Macao is not the same. All the supply in Singapore is not the same.

Operator

Your next question is coming from David Katz from Jefferies.

David Katz

I know hypotheticals are not always the favorite choice. But listening to the commentary about buybacks and where the stock is currently trading. And the lack of recognition for the future. Is there any thought in the future to sort of not having a public stock, right, given the strength of your balance sheet and the ability to do that and still fund your business, et cetera. Could we ever be in a world like that?

Patrick Dumont

I don't know how to answer that question other than we're going to keep buying back shares. I don't think there's any interest at this time to take the company private. It's not something that we talk about. In my mind, this is a company with a lot of growth potential. We're happy to have public equity. We think it's the right way to go. We think it allows the public markets to ride along with us as we grow and create success over time, and we're very happy with it. I think from our standpoint, the market is looking at us in a certain way today, and we're very happy to have a repurchase program to take advantage of the share prices where they are today, and we'll continue strengthening our share count and shareholder value. That's kind of what we're focused on.

David Katz

I appreciate you addressing it. And as my follow-up quickly, just going back to Singapore, I think you mentioned some of the elements that impacted the quarter being World Cup a little bit of hold. Could you just go back and walk us through because I think earlier on, you said several issues were impacting Singapore? And how are you seeing the competitive landscape, right? I mean you have one really. What are you seeing from your competitor in that market?

Patrick Dumont

So maybe I'll answer the questions in reverse. I think Marina Bay Sands competes with every greater destination in Asia. The people that come to Marina Bay Sands and come to Singapore can go anywhere, right? They're affluent, their flights all over Asia. They're choosing Marina Bay Sands because of the experience we provide. We compete with everybody. So when you think about luxury high-value tourism experiences, there's a lot of different places you can go. So the reason why we keep investing and the reason we're so focused on service, on high-quality amenities, great retail, great food and beverage, great entertainment is because we have to outcompete everybody. We have to get everyone's attention, and we have to make sure they want to come back. And we have to do that every time they visit. So for us, we don't think about a single competitor in our market outside of our market directly. It's everybody. We're competing with everyone all the time. And the way we win is through the investments that we've made, and we'll keep making. That's why we're so focused on upgrading the facilities we have there all the time. That's where we're so focused on IR 2, by adding the arena by having entertainment as a component of what we can offer by increasing our MICE program. We're constantly remixing our retail. We're constantly reinventing our food and beverage offerings. All of these things are designed to captivate the attention of our highest value to us and the people who come to our building. So that's kind of how we think about our positioning within Singapore and to be fair across Asia. I think -- sorry, what was the other question?

David Katz

So with respect to Singapore in the quarter, you said several things. Talk about World Cup, talk about hold. Can you walk us through that list?

Patrick Dumont

Oh, sure. Yes, sorry about that. Yes. I'll just go back to sort of the points that we made previously. We just had less visitation from our highest-value patrons. That was the primary driver. You can attribute to World Cup, you contribute it to some of the other things that are out there that I'm sure everyone reads. We can't tell you which one it is. We just know that our highest value patrons visited less. And to be fair, we did experience some low hold.

Operator

Our next question is coming from Trey Bowers from Wells Fargo.

Raymond Bowers

I sound like a broken record on this, but wondering if you could just comment on the promotional intensity in Macao. And if if you're seeing any kind of opening up and if no, if it's still very heavy promotions, what kind of breaks that cycle as we go forward?

Kwan Chum

I think we talked about that just a moment ago. the market remains very competitive. We see no letup in the reinvestment intensity. However, we also don't see any major escalation, and that's allowed us to optimize our reinvestment levels. And whilst doing that, we're still gaining market share, and we will continue to do that. We will, of course, respond if we need to, if that level of competitiveness changes in either direction as to what actually will help the market to moderate the levels of reinvestment it's primarily going to be a function of market revenue growth, but we do see that there are some indicators where different operators will be looking to fine-tune their reinvestment levels even in the current market condition because the profit margin of the industry is simply not where it was. So in a nutshell, nothing has really changed in the competitive intensity. We continue to gain share and optimize reinvestment. If revenues make a big comeback in recovery levels, then we should see the reinvestment levels moderate naturally.

Raymond Bowers

Great. And then as a follow-up, just one more on Singapore. I think earlier, Patrick, when you responded to the question about the investment, you kind of highlighted, one, you're building out a lot of space for your highest value customers, and I would think that's the tower. And then two, you're building out things like the arena that would maybe appeal to that more mass table play, the non-rolling chip volume. One, is that kind of the right way to think about it? And then two, just in terms of that incremental tower appealing to that high-value customer. It would seem like if your experience a quarter like you just did, where sometimes those customers just don't show up. Maybe help us understand why you need that excess capacity is that there's incremental customers out there that you just need to entice to the property with something new and more exciting or I'll stop there. Just help us kind of bridge that divide between those two competing directions.

David Katz

So really appreciate the question. Our highest tiers of customers have been growing, both in Singapore and in Macao, and they're younger and they're people we've never seen before. There's been a lot of wealth creation in Asia over the last 5 years. And a lot of the people who are creating this wealth want to experience travel, want to experience tourism, want to experience hospitality at the highest level. They want to experience great things, and they're coming to us. And our problem is, particularly during peak periods, we don't have enough capacity. And so -- and we see that today, never mind 4 years from now when this thing opens. And so our goal is to really create the best hotel that's ever been created. We hope it's the best hotel in the world. We've benchmarked against a lot of ion properties, including our own. And our goal is to create something that includes wellness that has a residential field, and that feels very special and very unique in terms of its approach in terms of its service levels. That will allow us to have more of these high-value customers show up more frequently. If you remember, when we opened the renovation in '25 -- early '25, we took our suite count up from 132 to about 770. And that allowed us to have the step function growth in earnings because we were able to accommodate these high-value patrons in a way that we never did before. They are out there. And now we'll have more of that capacity. And so in a quarter like this, as I said before, I believe this was operational. We had people who didn't show up, but the good news is they're out there. And we have great products, we have great services. And now with this tower coming online in under 5 years, we will have the ability to have more of them in the building with more unique experiences and take advantage of the growth and wealth creation in Asia and the experiences that these wealthy people want to have. And I will tell you that, that arena is going to be very special. Because if you look at the amount of entertainment tourism that Singapore does today and the capacity of hotel rooms around us, and the great infrastructure to travel from all around Southeast Asia into Singapore, we feel that being able to program that arena will be a very powerful tourism driver and a very powerful MICE space. And the good news is, depending on stage configuration, it's got about 15,000 seats. This stage is really big. It will have a little bit less, but that's the idea. And so we'll be able to put our highest value patients in there in very specialty IP areas. We'll be able to have local Singaporeans have an unbelievable music experience and everyone in between, including our mass customers that show up. And so we're very excited about that as an asset that will help create high-value touristic visitation, not only to our property, but also to Singapore.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Timothy Chao from Citigroup.

Unknown Analyst

My first question is about the actually the mass hold rate because I see that, especially for London and also Marina Bay Sands. [indiscernible] does seem unusually know and understand management doesn't really adjust for the mass segment for the whole rate I'm just wondering if this -- we say this is actually mostly [indiscernible] or are we seeing short-term in of stay from players?

Kwan Chum

Thanks for the question. For Macao, yes, the lower hole we experienced at the London was primarily due to playing unlucky at the super high-end segment of the premium mass. And then to be fair, in Marina Bay Sands, we also experienced some negative luck factor within the non-rolling drop.

Unknown Analyst

And the other thing is about the Chinese offshore is an overall tightening of outbound investments and the impact on both making [indiscernible] I believe management has already touched on this topic a little bit earlier. But just trying to get more color from new, if I may. Do you think the hit we are seeing now is something structural or temporary that we still hopeful that the gaming appetite from Chinese players will recover soon.

Kwan Chum

We don't have any specific comment on the tax issue. There is a confluence of many macro factors that are converging that can impact the demand levels, but I think as Patrick has referenced very, very well, there's a huge amount of demand creation through the wealth creation and growth over the past several years, and that will continue, and that will positively impact both markets. So we're very confident of that. And that's why we continue to make the investments we're making in the product uplift as well as the infrastructure and the service levels of our business. So we continue that strategy, and we are very confident that the demand cycle will come through in our favor over time.

Operator

That completes our Q&A session. Everyone, this concludes today's event. You may disconnect at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.