Good afternoon. My name is Toni, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Las Vegas Sands Corp. third quarter 2013 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the pound key. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Daniel Briggs, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.
Thank you. Before I turn the call over to Mr. Adelson, please let me remind you that today's conference will contain forward-looking statements that we are making under the safe harbor provisions of federal securities laws. The company's actual results could differ materially from the anticipated results in those forward-looking statements. Please see today's press release under the caption forward-looking statements for a discussion of risks that may affect our results. In addition, we may discuss adjusted net income and hold normalized adjusted net income, adjusted diluted earnings per share and hold normalized adjusted diluted earnings per share, and adjusted property EBITDA and hold normalized adjusted property EBITDA, all of which are non-GAAP measures. A definition and a reconciliation of each of these measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the press release. Please note that this presentation is being recorded.
We also want to inform you that we have posted supplementary earnings slides on our investor relations website for your use. We may refer to those slides during the Q&A portion of the call. Finally, for those who would like to participate in the Q&A session, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question so we might allow everyone with interest to participate. With that, let me please introduce our Chairman, Sheldon Adelson.
Thank you, Dan. Looks like we have so many adjustments. Our adjustments are getting worse.
Further adjustments.
Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for joining us today. We are extremely pleased with our record financial results, which continue to reflect strong execution of our strategic objectives. We delivered outstanding growth in revenue, cash flow, net income, and earnings per share this quarter with our adjusted diluted earnings per share up 78.3% to $0.82 per share. Hold normalized diluted earnings per share increased 47.2% to reach $0.78 per share. Take that, you guys who underestimated us. Importantly, the power of our unique convention-based integrated resort business model, which truly sets us apart in the industry, is increasingly being reflected in our financial results.
Looking back to the two-year period ending December 31, 2012, out of the largest 100 U.S. public companies, we were the 11th fastest in net revenue growth, the ninth fastest in EBITDA growth, the eighth fastest in net income growth, and number 3 out of 100 in earnings per share growth. Looking ahead, we are confident that our business model gives us a sustainable competitive advantage in the integrated resort industry as we seek new development opportunities. We are the leaders in the industry, and our unique convention-based business model, coupled with our financial strength and focus on operational excellence, will contribute to our growth in the years ahead. The highlights of the quarter from my perspective are as follows. First, we delivered another record quarter in Macau, where we are growing faster than the market in both the mass and the VIP segments.
Second, the confidence we have in our business and the reliability and predictability of our cash flows has allowed us to raise our recurring dividend for the 2014 calendar year to $2 per share, an increase of 42.9% compared to the $1.40 recurring dividend we will have paid this year. Yay, dividend. Third, we returned nearly $300 million of capital to shareholders this quarter through stock repurchases. I guess $299 million is close enough to say $300. Our financial results continue to reflect the strong performance of our four principal strategic objectives. Please allow me to remind you of those objectives and to update you on our execution against them. Number 1, maximize organic growth from our property portfolio. Objective number 2, deliver additional growth by making new investments in our current markets.
Objective number three, identify and nurture new integrated resort development opportunities in geographic areas outside of our current markets. Objective number four, continue to increase the return of capital to shareholders. Focusing on organic growth, adjusted property EBITDA across our Macao property portfolio grew 60.8% to reach a record $7 million. Our mass table win in Macao for the quarter was up 61.2% to reach a record $1.06 billion in a market that grew approximately 38% in the quarter. Our growth was 61% faster than the Macao market in the most important and most profitable segment in Macao. The VIP business is also a given field, with our rolling volume increasing 26% to reach a record $45.4 billion. That represents VIP market share of approximately 18.2% of Macao market rolling volume, compared to 15.5% one year ago.
Our growth in VIP revenue for the quarter was nearly two-thirds faster than the Macao market. The Venetian Macao delivered another strong quarter, and due to our market-leading investments in non-gaming offerings, continues to lead the Macao market in visitation and business and leisure tourism appeal. Our fundamental multi-tiered integrated resort development strategy, which features convention, exhibition, hotel, retail, and entertainment offerings, helped deliver 16.7 million visits in the quarter to our property portfolio, including nearly 8 million visits to The Venetian Macao. EBITDA at The Venetian Macao increased to $357 million. The Venetian's non-rolling chip drop increased 75.8% to reach a property record $2.01 billion. The Four Seasons Macao delivered a property record $112.9 million in EBITDA, an increase of over 107% compared to the third quarter of 2012. Rolling volume per table per day increased 48%, while mass table win increased 113%.
Sands Cotai Central, our latest and largest property on the Cotai Strip, continues its steady rise and delivered a property record $224 million in EBITDA this quarter. No property in the history of Macao has reached that level of profitability so quickly. It looks to me like it's close to a run rate of a billion dollars. Sands Cotai Central is rapidly approaching becoming the third property in our portfolio to produce more than $1 billion of EBITDA per year, and we look forward to it soon joining The Venetian Macao and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore with that distinction. We welcomed over 4.5 million visitors to Sands Cotai Central during the quarter, as our investments in non-gaming amenities have contributed meaningfully to both the tourism appeal and financial success of the property.
Looking ahead in Macao, we look forward to generating growth in our Cotai Strip properties across all segments. As tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure investments in Macao, Guangdong Province, and Southern China enable more people to more easily reach Macao. These infrastructure investments include the world's most expensive and extensive high-speed rail system, a $10 billion bridge directly connecting Macao and Zhuhai with Hong Kong, and more than $20 billion of investment in the Special Economic Zone of Hengqin Island, which is adjacent to Macao in Guangdong Province. It's actually adjacent to Cotai. The infrastructure expansion will be capped off by the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge , which is currently scheduled for completion in 2016.
The bridge will allow passengers arriving by plane at the Hong Kong International Airport to reach Macao in as little as 20 minutes, which is faster than the time it takes to reach Hong Kong. It's really a phenomenon. How many cities get the opportunity to adopt a bridge as close to your city as, almost as close as the airport of your city, to bring in a substantial portion of Chinese residents that cannot get to Macao because of the size of the airport and the number of airlines servicing. They have over 100 airlines servicing Hong Kong. All you have to do is come out of the Hong Kong airport, where the start of the bridge is located on Lantau Island. Turn one way and you go to Macao in 20 minutes. You turn the other way, you go to Hong Kong in 45 minutes.
That is Hong Kong Island. The Hong Kong International Airport served over 56 million passengers in 2012 and was the world's 12th busiest airport. Macao provides service to more than 100 airlines to more than 180 cities around the globe, including 44 in mainland China. If Macao was looking to attract many times the visitors that it has today, nobody could have picked a better situation than to be close to a fully mature major international. In the future, Macao will be conveniently served by two airports, including one of the most important in the world, not just one. I want to turn to Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. We produced EBITDA of $374 million this quarter, which was up over 43% compared to the $261 million we generated in the same quarter one year ago.
Rolling volumes were stronger compared to the quarter last year, and we held 2.85% against that volume compared to 1.79% last year. In addition, our hotel business reflected strong growth with ADR increasing to $401 with occupancy approaching 100%. That means between 99 and 100. Let's turn to strategic objective number two, development growth in our current markets. Construction continues at The Parisian Macao, our fifth property on the Cotai Strip and our sixth in Macao overall. Based on our current schedule, and subject to timely government approvals that may be required, we are targeting a late 2015 opening of our latest integrated resort, no change in our targeted opening date. However, I talked to our head of development yesterday, and they said there is some opportunity to potentially, not committing to it, to potentially pick up up to a couple of months in schedules.
He told me yesterday that we have three out of a couple thousand pilings, so we have three pilings left to go. We already have a lot of pile caps in, and we're starting structure above the pile caps. I'm very pleased with the progress we're making on The Parisian. Moving on to strategic objective number three, the development of integrated resorts in new markets and geographic areas. In Asia, activity levels in Japan have increased, and we are pursuing the potential for IR development in this promising market with great enthusiasm and optimism. Korea has also shown increased activity, and we're looking forward to potential development opportunities. With respect to a European development in Madrid, there are a number of various steps left in the development process.
Any investment would be subject to the receipt of government approvals and the finalization of the grants and incentive package that would enable investment and provide the environment for meaningful returns. Finally, let's review strategic objective number four, the return of capital to shareholders. Yay, return of capital. We've now returned more than $5 billion of cash to our shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases over the last 21 months, including nearly $4.4 billion to Las Vegas Sands shareholders and over $700 million to the non-LVS shareholders in Sands China. That $5 billion includes nearly $600 million returned to LVS shareholders this quarter alone through dividends and stock repurchases. As I mentioned before, we raised our recurring dividend to $2 per share for the 2014 calendar year, an increase of 42.9%.
We have every intention of increasing the recurring dividend at Las Vegas Sands in the years ahead as our business and cash flows continue to grow. We have $1.65 billion remaining under the current stock repurchase authorization. In the future, we expect to repurchase at least $75 million of stock per month. We look forward to continuing to utilize the program to return capital to shareholders and to enhance long-term shareholder returns. Before moving to your questions, please allow me to share with you the reasons we believe our leadership in integrated resort development and operation will be sustainable in the future. First, we have a convention-based business model that is unique in the integrated resort industry. That expertise sets us apart from others and positions us extremely well to win the most promising piece of global development opportunities.
There is hardly a city or country in the world that doesn't want more tourism and convention and exhibition-driven business. We are the dominant specialists in that field. Second, we are long-term strategic developers and operators. When we developed the Cotai Strip, we were building to the future market, the market that would develop with the emergence of the Asian middle class and the completion of the major infrastructure projects that provide them greater access to the market. Our focus on building non-gaming amenities, dining, retail, entertainment Convention and exhibition facilities as vital components of our integrated resort properties is another example of our long-term strategic nature. We have invested the most in Macao in non-gaming offerings, with 25% of our EBITDA generated from hotel, retail, convention, and exhibition businesses.
Those non-gaming investments benefit us in both financial returns and in differentiating us from other companies as we pursue new development opportunities. A third point that will contribute to the sustainability of our business is that we have the industry's most experienced leadership team with a proven ability to execute our strategy. Fourth, we run our operations efficiently. We generate the industry's highest profit margins. We are focused on maximizing cash flow and delivering for our shareholders on the bottom line. Let me emphasize one final important point. The scale of our business and the strength, reliability, and predictability of our cash flows allow us to return capital to shareholders while maintaining balance sheet strength and the ability to develop large, iconic projects that will generate great utility for our host markets and outstanding returns for our shareholders.
It's my job, together with our outstanding management team, to make sure we stay disciplined and continue to execute strategies that will both extend our industry leadership, enter into new markets, and generate strong growth and outstanding returns for our shareholders in the years ahead. I couldn't be more confident about our continued success. With that, let me turn the call over to the operator to begin the Q&A session.
Operator, we're ready for the first question, please.
Your first question comes from the line of Shaun Kelley with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Thank you. Guys, I think that the key focus I'd like to ask about is probably on the margin side here. It looks like three of your four properties in Macao did above a 30% EBITDA margin this quarter, and I think the big surprises were both Sands Cotai Central and the Four Seasons. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what you were doing to continue to drive mass market growth, in particular at those properties, and how you're able to yield up maybe the hotel rooms and what you guys are learning about that's allowing you to deliver such strong margins there.
Well, where should I go?
Hey, Shaun, it's Rob. Obviously, we're pleased at SCC with the numbers. It'll end up being the third property in the LVS portfolio to exceed $1 billion of annual EBITDA in the future. We believe there's considerable room to grow the business. SCC, as you know, has almost 6,000 hotel rooms on Cotai, and at this point, there's 200 less mass table games at SCC versus The Venetian. In the spring, we open up our premium mass offering of 75 more games. We believe the story at SCC is just beginning. It's in its infancy from my perspective. We believe the potential growth there is material for a lot of reasons. To answer your question, we're obviously happy with our win per unit. The margin driver there is the mass table business, and that has grown immeasurably.
We're almost at the industry lead there in Cotai, and yet we only have less than 300 games. The margins at SCC are predictable when you have a focus like we do and a room base. As you know, the most important predictor of gaming habit is where you sleep, and most people sleep with us because we have the most rooms. I think Sands Cotai Central, although we're very pleased with the performance this quarter, it has a lot of room to grow well beyond the current numbers. You referenced Four Seasons, and again, we're pleased with Four Seasons after resegmentation. Our junket performance there is exceptional and always has been. I think also for the first time, we're getting strong results out of the premium mass segment. We have over 60 games or so there now. I'm not sure the exact number.
The key at Four Seasons is to get the proper mix between junket. We're very strong proponents of both segments, the junket mix and the mass table mix or premium mass table mix. Four Seasons is highly desirable to consumers in Cotai. Again, we've got that right this quarter. To get to our goal of $500-plus million of annualized EBITDA, we've got to keep working on our mix and keep working on that use of the rooms, and the team there is very focused on that. We're very pleased with both SCC and Four Seasons, but we think both stories are in the infancy, and there's considerable growth in the future of those properties.
Thanks, Rob. I guess just wanted to follow up, we've gotten a few questions on Singapore as well. In that property, obviously, normalized hold for the first time in a number of quarters is encouraging. A couple of questions on operating expenses there being up a little bit both sequentially and year-over-year. Could you comment if there was anything either in there that was maybe dragging on margins just this quarter or just any one-time items? That would be helpful.
Well, I think you know that our focus in Singapore has migrated over to the foreign visitation, that includes more rooms to the premium mass customer who comes to that property. We're still running 60%+ margins in that segment. We're delighted with our progress there. As you know, we've spoken previous calls about the challenge in Singapore vis-à-vis visitation from locals. Our team there is very focused on driving our foreign visitation. We're up over 46% year-over-year in that segment. That segment does require sleeping rooms. The casino has to pay for those rooms. That is somewhat the hotel benefit. It's a yin and a yang on that. The truth is that we want to keep driving more foreign visitation, premium mass. As you note, we're at four or five a day. Our goal is to get to 5 million a day.
That's where the growth resides in Singapore for us. It may drive a few points of margin here and there, in the end of the day, if we can get that number to 5 million a day, the overall EBITDA on that property will accelerate quite a bit.
Shaun, I'm sure you know that we all love you, we also love the other girls at the dance.
Thanks a lot. I will yield the floor.
You better yield the floor.
Appreciate it.
We'd like to keep the questions to two per person, please. You can come back again later if we have more time.
Your next question comes from the line of Felicia Hendrix with Barclays.
Can we just stay on Singapore for a minute then, Rob? Just to continue along that line, what was the cash RevPAR then, or your cash ADR, however you want to give us that number? Was there an increase in commissions that you paid there as well? According to our calculations, it looks like there might be.
The commissions on the VIP were consistent with. We're not escalating commissions. They remain the same. The rolling volume was $1,378.5. As for RevPAR, I think RevPAR was pretty close to the $400 number because as Mr. Adelson said, we were all virtually full and we had a $401 U.S. average rate. RevPAR was almost at the 400 level.
Just trying to understand the comment, your answer to Shaun's question. In terms of giving more rooms to the premium mass segment, you're trying to attract more of the foreign visitor. It just sounded like maybe you were giving more rooms away. Just again, how is that?
Yes, we are.
We are.
That's the issue.
You're exactly right. The market was driven by local. Now we're moving towards more of a foreign visitation market. To get our casino win, the premium mass beyond the $42, $44, $45 a day, our focus has been on foreign visitation, which obviously requires fly-in customers and rooms. We're buying more rooms from the hotel, and that may have an adverse effect, a point or two on the margins.
The ADR that you're reporting is a cash ADR and not just the kind of casino-related ADR?
There's no material difference in the reported ADR and the cash ADR, no.
Actually, I think we pay more in the casino segment than any other segment there is. We pay the highest rates to the hotel from the casino side.
Okay.
Yeah.
Did that all count as one question?
That's it, Felicia. Done. Over and out.
I'm done? Oh.
Yes.
New world. Okay, thanks. Bye.
Oh, Sheldon, two questions. You get a second question.
Thank you. Since you're answering the question, I want to make sure someone else gets in there.
Okay.
Your next question comes from the line of Steven Kent with Goldman Sachs.
Keep okay. We get a consensus.
Hey, Steve.
Hi, good afternoon. Just a couple of questions, more from a corporate perspective. Can you discuss the search for the CFO and where you stand? Also the same on the FCPA investigation, whether we could get a resolution on that sometime soon.
Yeah. Steve, at the present time, the search for the CFO has not actually begun. We continue to talk about when that will take place. Probably not, if at all, not till the end of the year or the beginning of next year. At this time of the year, it's not really a good time. We are moving along the same way we have been organized for the last four months. As far as FCPA, there is nothing new to report. That investigation continues to go on, and there is no real indication as far as when that will be completed.
Okay, my second question, Rob, you said that international play is up 60%. Where is it actually? Did you say the number, what percentage is now internationally from?
I think that serves you. I said in Singapore, our foreign visitation premium mass is up 46% in that segment.
Okay.
The driver of our success in Singapore in the premium mass segment is foreign visitation because as you know, we have challenges in local visitation. The growth there is material. I didn't reference this, but we're thrilled to see the non-Guangdong visitation into Macao, actually bypassing Guangdong visitation. With our room base, that's a very positive thing for us because they stay longer, come from further away, and require sleeping rooms. Sheldon's 9,000 sleeping rooms in Cotai turned out to be a pretty good idea. As that accelerates and the infrastructural improvements continue, I think we'll see more demand for those rooms. That foreign visitation from non-Guangdong is the Macao driver for us.
Okay, thank you.
Sure.
Thanks, Steve.
Your next question comes from the line of Thomas Allen with Morgan Stanley.
Good afternoon. In terms of the capital returns, in your original remarks, you mentioned that you expect to buy back at least $75 million of stock a month. Is that an annual target, you'll do $900 million a year or more? Are you really going to do it, you have a minimum monthly commitment? Are you still planning to take advantage of volatility in your stock price? Thanks.
Tom, this is Mike. We're not going to be opportunistic. We're committing to buy a minimum of $75 million worth of stock a month. If it does become an opportunity to buy it at a lower price, we can put in more money if we wish. At this point, our commitment is to buy $75 million a month until the $1.6 billion that's available under our agreement to buy $2 billion is used.
That's helpful. Thanks. Should we assume that you're not going to pay a special dividend at the end of the year, given the buybacks and the increase of the recurring?
There hasn't been a discussion at this point about a special dividend. That'll be discussed toward the end of the year. At this point, we can't really answer that question.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Carlo Santarelli with Deutsche Bank.
Guys, good afternoon. Big picture, just thinking about Japan and other Asian opportunities out there, could you guys talk a little bit about how you would frame them over time in terms of how you're thinking about CapEx, maybe some of the differences in building in a market such as Japan or Tokyo relative to your experiences in Singapore or Macao?
Sure. Carlo, it's Mike. Japan would obviously be the most expensive investment we've ever made from a single property standpoint. The estimates range anywhere from $6 billion in Tokyo and up. There's been some comments recently about construction costs going up in Japan because of the Olympics, so it's likely to potentially run higher than that. In Korea, we would not expect to spend that kind of money at all. It would probably be less than the Singapore property and significantly less than Japan. In countries like Vietnam, we'd expect lower construction costs there because labor and construction are both lower. If, perchance, Taiwan would take place, it would probably look like something like Korea. We're pretty well in touch through our development department in every one of those places to understand the exact economics involved from a construction standpoint.
What we don't know in Japan is what the tax rates will be, or in any of these other countries at this point. We can't estimate the bottom line. We can, in fact, estimate not only construction, but cost of operation, which we're doing all the time.
Great. Thanks. Just one quick one. It's not a very big or material number, but I did notice next year's CapEx, you guys have a $215 million investment in current properties. Are there any special projects that you guys are thinking about? That's it for Carlo.
Yeah. Our CapEx on an annual basis for the products we have today represents close to $500 million annually. That CapEx is divided into property maintenance, which essentially is keeping the products the way they are, and a combination of other investments, which involve profit opportunities that we find within the properties to upgrade. Our present plans are to spend approximately that money on an annual basis.
Carlo, the red in that slide on page 24, the $250 million is Theater Box Five and Four Seasons. That's what that money is designed to pay for.
Yeah. New development money represents other money on top of the maintenance CapEx.
Your next question comes from the line of Cameron McKnight with Wells Fargo.
A question for Rob, first of all. Labor has been a big talking point. Can you comment on the labor restrictions that relate to dealers in Macao?
I'll answer that question. Rob only cares about how much is being played at the tables. I take care of the labor with Chris. The answer to that question is that from a dealer standpoint, they will be Macanese dealers and Macanese croupiers. That's what the government wants, and that's what we intend to do. All the comments that have gone on in the last month about that have caused a lot of uproar in the local community in Macao. I don't think anybody, including us, is prepared to venture away from those rules at all. The government assures us that we'll have enough people available at the time when we have more tables and more situations, and we will follow the rules directly on that area.
Great. Thanks very much, Mike. Then as a follow-up, as we think about capacity and the projects that are being built over the next five years, what do you think is more important in driving EBITDA? Is it hotel rooms or is it tables?
Well, they're both. You need both, right?
You're talking about in Macao?
Yeah. In Macao, yeah.
Look, they're both very important. Let's be clear. You can't do one without the other. The key to our success has been this room concentration. I think, again, going back to years ago when we built these large projects and people were questioning the approach. Today, we look at the relative table versus room relationship, it's obviously clear that we have a huge advantage by all those sleeping rooms. Tables, you have to have the tables, and obviously that's an issue in Macao. Never forget how important those sleeping rooms are. With the table caps, tables are more valuable than ever. The sleeping room equivalent, that sleeping room piece of the puzzle is evident every day as we go forward. Our success
In Macao, we keep growing our table games. Our mass table is over 1,000 now. We can do that because you've got the sleeping rooms to drive that revenue. They're related beyond anyone's comprehension years ago.
There's a big coincidence of events. We have a huge, multi-tens of billions of train infrastructure built and being built, bringing in more people. We have, in three years or less, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao airport opening up that will give Macao essentially a very mature, very highly patronized international airport. It's a very unique position. The more people come in and the table caps stay, the more win per table per day we're going to experience. We can see it's already happening. We can go from, say, $11,000 or $12,000 or $15,000 per table in mass. It'll go up to $13,000, $14,000, $15,000, $17,000, $20,000. It could go higher. With the limit on table caps and just more people coming in, we're going to have a lot more win per day.
Yep. The other thing I'll just mention on top of Sheldon's comments, one more thing. The size of the facility, there's obviously a table cap, and obviously sleeping rooms are a challenge for the market. The Venetian and our larger buildings like SCC afford us the ability to add more ETG units and capitalize on the huge size of these buildings. A lot of buildings don't have that capacity, so that's another opportunity for us to keep adding more ETGs and growing our business that way.
Great. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Cameron.
Your next question comes from the line of Harry Curtis with Nomura.
Harry Curtis. A couple of quick questions. Following up on Japan. Could you just give us an update on your views of the legislation and what the likely outcome will be as far as the ownership structure?
Harry, as far as the ownership structure, we do not have any news at all about partnerships or what have you at this point. There's been some rumors in the market about having a Japanese partner all the way to Japanese majority that I've seen in print, but there's nothing that our people on the ground know about any significant, really indication as to what the Japanese ownership, if any, would be at this particular point in time. On the legislation, you probably know the same things we know. They're talking about by December, having the first phase of the legislation done. Our best knowledge today is we're not sure. It could be December, it could be January. All the press has been favorable, but Japan has been trying this for many, many years, and you really just can't predict when that legislation will happen.
There's talk about a year to two after the legislation. Lots of talk now about one year before a final decision. Once again, that is not known either. At this point, we're optimistic. I think everyone is optimistic that Japan will do something. At the end of the day, I don't think anybody's able to really predict it.
This is Sheldon. They're focusing on two things. One, the integrated resort model out of Singapore. They're focusing on the social protections, like perhaps the $100 admission fee, the levy. Secondly, they're focusing on conventions. There's no company in the world that has the convention experience like we do. Anybody, any journalist, any analyst, anybody in politics, in government says that the front-runner by far in the pole position is Las Vegas Sands Corp., because we're the experts in both of what they're looking for. They're looking to create tourism. Our integrated resorts in the first 24 months increased tourism in Singapore by 41%. It's generally acknowledged we have changed Las Vegas with our business model and convention pace. We have changed Macao. Everybody in the government will acknowledge that.
We've changed Singapore, and we could easily change any other city in which we have a MICE-focused, MICE-paced business model. Everybody says we're in the pole position there. We hope we're in the pole position. I think that we may have a caught between a rock and a hard place, meaning we think that Tokyo wants us and Osaka wants us. We've notified both governments. We're happy to accommodate both.
That does it for me. Thank you.
Thanks, Harry.
Your final question comes from the line of Robin Farley with UBS.
Great, thanks. You mentioned in your comments that government approvals are still needed for the Parisian project. Can you just highlight what are the major approvals that are still needed for that to open in late 2015?
Yeah. Felicia's asking what approvals we may need before we open in 2015.
Actually, I don't think I mentioned this.
No.
In your opening comments, you mentioned government approval. You're saying you don't expect any additional approvals are needed?
You always need building permits. We always put in a caveat when we talk about a schedule, assuming building permits come on a timely basis. In Macao, they have come on a timely basis. I'd rather issue a caveat to say subject to the government acting the way they've always acted, giving us building permits on a timely basis. If I said that, frankly, I don't recall that.
Okay.
There is no specific approvals. We know that they're planning to give out tables, the last thing I heard was everybody's not going to be as happy with the table allocation as everybody would like to be. We'll have to live with that. We think we're in a better position. Our competitors are not going to do any better than we are. Since everybody, all six concessionaires, the primary concessionaires or the sub-concessionaires, which we're one, has the opportunity. Everybody's put in for the same number of tables for this, if they keep the table cap at exactly what they are, we hope we'll get enough tables, and we'll take the lower-performing tables from other properties, which I think the government is counting up for everybody. There'll be no advantage except we're putting up almost as many rooms as the average of the other five concessionaires.
The average of two of them, because they're averaging 15 to 1,700. We're in the process of building the St. Regis, and we're putting another 400 or 500 rooms there, which is the fourth building on Sands Cotai Central.
Great, thanks.
We don't see any obstacles there, Felicia.
Robin.
It's Robin. My other question was.
We're having a hard time hearing you. Could you speak into the phone?
Sure, yeah. The other question was about your reserve levels in Singapore. It looks like as a percent of accounts receivable, it's as high as it's ever been there. Just wondering what's going on with collections leading you to be so conservative with reserves. Thanks.
Rob, it's Rob. We've always aspired to get a higher percentage of our $1.1 billion in Singapore reserved in the 30s and beyond. We're very pleased with collections are going. As you note, we're at 32% on $1.119 billion. Comfortable with it. Think we're being conservative, and going to keep that approach because I think it makes sense for us. As you know, it's challenging collecting money in Singapore. It's always been a thing we talk about very honestly. We feel it's difficult in Singapore. It's difficult because we are dealing with mostly mainland Chinese customers. We feel good about the reserve, and we feel good about the level of collections we have accelerated.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thanks, Robin.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference.