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 Corporation 3rd Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session.
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. You may refer to those slides during the Q and A portion of the call.
Finally, for those who would like to participate in the Q and 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 to give them both. 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 on 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 percent to $0.82 per share.
Hold normalized diluted earnings per share increased 47.2% to reach $0.78 per share. Think that you guys who underestimated us. Importantly, the power of our unique convention based integrated result business model, which truly sets us apart in the industry, is increasingly being reflected in our financial results. Looking back to the 2 year period ending December 31, 2012, and out of the largest 100 U. S.
Public companies, we were the 11th fastest in net revenue growth, the 9th fastest in EBITDA growth, the 8th 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 industry as we seek new development opportunities. We are the leaders in the industry in 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.
2nd, 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 percent compared to the $1.40 recurring dividend we will update this year, a dividend. And 3rd, we returned nearly 300,000,000 dollars of capital to shareholders this quarter through stock repurchases. I guess 299,000,000 is close enough to say 3 $100,000,000 Our financial results continue to reflect the strong performance of our 4 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.
Effective number 2, deliver additional growth by making new investments in our current markets. Objective number 3, identify and nurture new integrated resort development opportunities in geographic areas outside of our current markets. Objective number 4, continue to increase the return of capital to shareholders. So focusing on organic growth, adjusted property EBITDA across our Macao property portfolio grew 60.8 percent to reach a record US784.3 million dollars Our mass table win of Macao for the quarter was up 61.2 percent to reach a record US1.06 billion dollars in a market that grew approximately 38% in the quarter. So 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 big deal with our rolling volume increasing 26% to reach a record US45.4 $4,000,000,000 That represents VIP market share of approximately 18.2% of Macao market rolling volume compared to 15.5% 1 year ago. Our growth in VIP revenue for the quarter was nearly 2 thirds faster than the Macao market. The Venetian Macau delivered another strong quarter and due to our market leading investments in non gaming offerings continues to lead the Macau 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 16,700,000 visits in the quarter to our property portfolio including nearly 8,000,000 visits to the Medatium account. EBITDA at the Venetian account increased to US357 $1,000,000 The Venetian's non loan tip drop increased 75.8 percent to reach a property record 2 point $1,000,000,000 The full seasonings account delivered a property record $112,900,000 in EBITDA, an increase of over 107% compared to the Q3 of 2012.
Rolling volume per table per day increased 48%, while mass table win decreased 113%. Sands Cotai Central, our latest and largest property on the Cotai Strip continues its steady ramp and delivered a property record $224,000,000 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 kind of close to a run rate of $1,000,000,000 Sands Cotai Central is rapidly approaching becoming the 3rd property in our portfolio to produce more than $1,000,000,000 of EBITDA per year and we look forward to it soon joining the Venetian Macau and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore with that distinction. We welcomed over 4,500,000 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 platform. Looking ahead in Macau, we look forward to generating growth in our co tested properties across all segments. As tens of 1,000,000,000 of dollars of infrastructure investments in Macao, Guangdong Province and Southern China enable more people to more easily reach the town. These infrastructure investments include the world's most expensive and extensive high speed rail system, a $10,000,000,000 bridge directly connecting Macao and Zhuhai with Hong Kong, and more than $20,000,000,000 of investment in the special economic zone of Pension Island, which is adjacent to Macau and Borongao province. It's actually adjacent to Kokan.
The infrastructure expansion will be kept up by the opening of the Hong Kong Macau Zhuhai 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 Macau in as little as 20 minutes, which is faster than the time it takes to reach our country. It's really a phenomenon. How many cities get the opportunity to adopt and bring 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 Macau because of the size of the airport and the number of airlines servicing. They have over 100 airlines servicing Hong Kong.
So 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 Macau in 20 minutes. You turn the other way you go to Hong Kong to 45. That is Hong Kong now. The Hong Kong International Airport served over 56,000,000 passengers in 2012 and was the world's 12th busiest airport last year.
The airport provides service to more than 100 airlines to more than 180 cities around the globe including 44 in Mainland China. If Repower 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. So in the future, Macao will be conveniently served by 2 airports including 1 of the most important in the world not just 1. Now I want to turn to marine debris sands in Sanofi. We produced EBITDA of $374,000,000 this quarter, which was up over 43% compared to the $261,000,000 we generated in the same quarter 1 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 US401 dollars with occupancy approaching 100%. That means like between $99100 Let's turn to strategic objective number 2, development growth in our current markets. Construction continues at the Parisian Macau, our 5th property on the Cotast strip and our 6th in the current 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 resource, so no change in our targeted opening stage.
However, I talked to our Head of Development yesterday and they said there is some opportunity to potentially I'm committing to it to potentially pick up up to a couple of months in schedule. And he told me yesterday that we have 3 out of a couple of 1,000 filaments. We've got 3 filaments left to go. We already have a lot of pile caps in and we've got the structure about the biocaps. So very pleased with the progress we're making on that on the bridge.
Moving on to strategic objective number 3, the development of integrated resource 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 pharmacy market with great enthusiasm and optics. Korea has also shown increased activity and we are looking forward to the potential development opportunities. With respect to the European development in Madrid, there are a number of various debts left in the development process. Any investment will be subject to the receipt of government approvals and the finalization of the grants and incentives package that would enable investment and provide the environment for meaningful returns.
Follow, let's review strategic objective number 4, the return of capital to share, gain return of capital. We have not returned more than US5 $1,000,000,000 of cash to our shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases over the last 21 months, improving nearly $4,400,000,000 for Las Vegas Sands shareholders and over $700,000,000 to the non LVS shareholders in the Sands channel. That $5,000,000,000 includes nearly US600 $1,000,000 returned to LVA's shareholders this quarter along through dividends and stock repurchases. As I mentioned before, we raised our recurring dividend to $2 per share for the 20 14 calendar year, an increase of 42.9%. We have every intention of increasing the recurring dividend of Las Vegas Sands in the years ahead as our business and cash flows continue to bear fruit.
We have $1,650,000,000 remaining under the current stock repurchase authorization. And in the future, we expect to repurchase at least $75,000,000 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. 1st, 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 future program development opportunities. There is hardly a city or country in the world that doesn't want more tourism and convention and exhibition driven business. With the dominant specialists for them. 2nd, we have long term strategic developers and operators. When we developed the Code District, we were building for the future market.
The market that we developed with the emergence of the Asian enterprise and the completion of the major infrastructure projects that provide them greater access to the mine. Our focus on building non gaming amenities dining, retail, entertainment, convention and exhibition facilities as vital components of our integrated resource properties is another example of our long term strategic nature. We have invested the most in Macau in non gaming offerings with 25% of our EBITDA generated from hotel, retail, convention and exhibition businesses. And 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.
4th, 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 should allow us to return capital to shareholders while maintaining balance sheet strength and the ability to develop large electronic 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 and turn to new markets and generate stronger 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 and A session.
Operator, we're ready for the first question, please.
Okay. Your first question comes from the line of Shaun Kelley with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Guys, I think that the key focus
I'd like to ask about is probably on the margin side here. So it looks like 3 of your 4 properties in Macau did above 30 EBITDA margin this quarter and I think the big surprises were both Sands Cotai Central and the Four Seasons. So I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what you were doing to continue to drive, I think, mass market growth in particular at those properties and how you're able to kind of yield up maybe the hotel rooms? What you guys are learning about that that's allowing you to deliver such strong margins there?
So what's shingle on?
Hey, Sean, it's Rob. Obviously, we're pleased at SEC with numbers. It will end up being the 3rd property in the LBS portfolio to exceed $1,000,000,000 of annual EBITDA in the future. But 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 SCC versus The Venetian. So in the spring, we opened up our premium mass offering of 75 more games. So we believe the story 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.
But to answer your question, we're obviously happy with our win per unit at 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. So the margins at SCC are predictable and you have a focus like we do in a room base. And as you know, the most important predictor of gaming habit is where you sleep and most people sleep with us because you have the most rooms. So I think Sandscote is essential.
Although we're very, very pleased with the performance this quarter, it has a lot of room to grow well beyond the current number. You referenced 4 Seasons and again we're pleased with 4 Seasons. That's a re segmentation. Our junket performance there is exceptional and always has been. But 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 exact number. But 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 tail mix or pre mass tail mix. Four Seasons is highly desirable for consumer in Cotai. And again, we've got that right this quarter, but to get to our goal of $500 plus 1,000,000 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.
So we're very pleased at both SEC 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. That's really helpful. And I guess just one follow-up, we've got a few questions on Singapore as well. In that property, obviously, normalized hold for the first time in a number of quarters is encouraging. But a couple of questions on operating expenses there being up a little bit, both sequentially and year on 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 we have our focus in Singapore has migrated over to the foreign visitation and that includes more rooms to the premium mass customer who comes to that property. We're still running 60 plus percent margins in that segment. We're delighted with our progress there. As you know, we've spoken in previous calls about the challenge in Singapore vis a vis visitation to locals. Our team there is very focused on driving our foreign visitation.
We're up over 46% year on year in that segment. That segment does require sleeping rooms. The casino has to pay for those rooms. So that is somewhat the hotel benefit. So it's a yin and the yang on that.
But the truth is that we want to keep driving more foreign visitation free in mass. As you know, we're at 4 or 5 a day. Our goal is to get to 5,000,000 a day. That's the most that's where the growth resides in Singapore for us. So it may drive a few points of margin here and there.
But at the end of the day, if we get that number of $5,000,000 a day, the overall EBITDA in that property will accelerate quite a bit.
Sean, I'm sure you know that we all love you, but we also love the other girls at the dance.
Thanks a lot. I will yield the
floor. You better yield the floor. Appreciate it. So we'd like to keep the questions to 2 per person. Can come back again later if we have both.
Your next question comes from the line of Felicia Hendrix with Barclays. Can we just stay on Singapore for a minute then Rob, can you just to continue along that line, what was the cash RevPAR then or your cash ADR, however you want to give us that number? And was there an increase in commissions that you paid there as well? Because 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 13,785. Dollars As for RevPAR, I think RevPAR
was pretty close to $400 number because of the as Mr. Adelson said, we were virtually full and we had a $401 U. S. Average rate. So RevPAR was almost at the $400 level.
Okay. And so just trying to understand the comment your answer to Sean's question. So 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. So just again, how is that?
Yes, we are. That's it.
Yes, you're exactly right. The market was driven by local and now we're moving towards a more of a foreign visitation market. And to get our casino win, the premium mass beyond the 4.2, 4.4 or 5 a day, our focus has been on foreign visitation, which obviously requires flying customers and rooms. So we're buying more rooms from the hotel and that may have an adverse effect a point or 2 on the margins.
Okay. So with 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 paid more in the casino segment than in the other segment there is. We paid the highest rates to the hotel and the casino side.
Okay. Did that all count as one question?
That's it. You're done over and out.
I'm done? New world. Okay. Thanks. I'll
jump to 2 questions because you got a second
Your next question comes from the line of Stephen Kent with Goldman Sachs.
Keep up, guys. So we've got 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? And also the same on the FCPA investigation whether we could get a resolution on that sometime soon?
Yes. Steve at the present time, we the search for the CFO has not actually begun. We continue to talk about when that will take place, probably not if it ends 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're moving along the same way we've been organized for the last 4 months.
And as far as FCPA, there's nothing new to report. That investigation continues to go on and there's no real indication as far as when that will be completed.
Okay. And then 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? I said in Singapore, our foreign visitation premium mass is up 46% in that segment.
So the driver of our success in Singapore is foreign visitation because as you know, we have challenges in local visitation. So the growth there is material. I didn't reference this, but we're thrilled to see the non Guangdong visitation into Macau, actually for bypassing Guangdong visitation. So with our room base, that's a very positive thing for us. They stay longer, come from further away and require sleeping rooms.
So Sheldon's 9,000 sleeping rooms on Cotai turned out to be a pretty good idea. And as that accelerates and the infrastructural improvements continue, I think we'll see more demand for those rooms. So that's foreign visitation from non Guangdong is the Macau driver for us.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Steve.
Your next question comes from the line of Thomas Allen with Morgan Stanley.
Good afternoon. Just in terms of the capital returns, in your original remarks, you mentioned that you expect to buy back at least $75,000,000 of stock a month. Is that an annual target? So you'll do $900,000,000 a year or more? Or are you really going to do it you have a minimum monthly commitment?
And are you still planning to take advantage of volatility in your stock price? Thanks.
I don't think Tom, this is Michael. We're not going to be opportunistic. We're committing to buy a minimum of $75,000,000 worth of stock a month. And if there if it does become an opportunity to buy it at lower price, we can put in more money if we wish. But at this point, our commitment is to buy $75,000,000 a month until the $1,600,000,000 that's available under our agreement to buy $2,000,000,000 is used.
That's helpful. Thanks. And then should we assume that you're not going to pay a special dividend at the end of the year given the buy backs and the increase of the recurring?
There hasn't been a discussion at this point about a special dividend. That will be discussed towards 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.
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 Macau?
Sure. Carlos, 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 $6,000,000,000 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. And if perchance Taiwan would take place, it would probably look like something like Korea.
So we're pretty well in touch to 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. So we can't estimate the bottom line, but we can in fact estimate not only construction, but cost of operation, which we're doing all the time.
Great. Thanks. And then 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 $215,000,000 investment in current
on an annual on an annual basis for the products we have today represents close to $500,000,000 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 present plans are to spend approximately that money on an annual basis.
And Carlo, the red in that slide on page 24 is the $250,000,000 is Theater Box 5 and Four Seasons. So that's what that money is designed to pay for.
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 Macau?
I'll answer that question. Rob only cares about how much is being played at the table, so 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 coupeers. 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 Macau.
I don't think anybody including us is prepared to community in Macau. I don't think anybody including us is prepared to venture away from those rules at all. And the government assures us that we'll have enough people available at the time when we have more tables in more situations and we will follow the rules directly on that area.
Great. Thanks very much, Mike. And then as a follow-up, as we think about capacity and the projects that are being built over the next 5 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 Macau.
Yes. In Macau, yes.
But 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 today, we look at the relative 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.
So tables, you have to have the tables and obviously that's an issue in Macau, but never forget how important those sleeping rooms are. And with the table caps, it's tables are more valuable than ever, but the sleeping room equivalent that sleeping room piece of the puzzle is evident every day as we go forward. And our success in Macao, we keep growing our table games, our mass tables over 1,000 now, but we can do that because you got the sleeping room to drive that revenue. So they're related beyond any other 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 3 years or less the Hong Kong, Zuhai, Macau airport opening up. And we'll give Macau essentially a very mature, very highly patronized international airport. It's a very, very unique position.
So the more people come in and the table cabs stay, the more wind per table per day will go into experiments. So they'll we could see it's already happening. So we can go from say $11,000 or $12,000 so $15,000 per table is vast. It will go up to $13,000,000 $14,000,000 $15,000,000 $17,000,000 $20,000,000 It could go higher. So with the Luminon table cuts and just more people coming in, we're going to have a lot more per day.
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. But The Venetian and our larger buildings, the FCC afford us the ability to add more ETG units and capitalize on the huge size of these buildings. And 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 Kiriath with Nomura.
Hi, Chris. Yes.
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 there is 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 it's not really you really just can't predict when that legislation will happen. And then there's talk about a year to 2 after the legislation.
Lots of talk now about 1 year before a final decision. But once again that is not known either. So at this point, optimistic. I think everyone is optimistic that Japan will do something. But at the end of the day, I don't think anybody is able to really predict it.
They are focusing on it's Shilton. They're focusing on 2 things. 1, the integrated result model out of Singapore. They're focusing on the social protections like perhaps the $100 admission fee, the levy. And secondly, they're focusing on conventions.
There is nobody there is no company in the world that has the convention experience like we do. Anybody, any journalist, any analyst, anybody in the politics, and government says that the frontrunner by far in the close position is Las Vegas and the footprint, because we're the experts in both of what they're looking for. They're looking to create tourism, our integrated resorts. In the 1st 24 months increased tourism in Singapore by 41%. We generally acknowledge we have changed Las Vegas with our business model convention page.
We have changed Macau. 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 based business model. So everybody says we're in a close position there.
We hope we're in a growth position. I think that we may have a copy of kind of rock and a hard place meaning we think that Tokyo would want us and Osaka wants us. So we've notified both governments. We're happy to accommodate them.
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 kind of highlight what are the kind of major approvals that are still needed for that to open in late 2015?
Yes. Aplish is asking what approvals we may need before we open in 2015? Actually,
I don't think I've mentioned it. No.
In your opening comments you mentioned government approval. So you're saying you don't expect any additional approval to need
You always need building permits. So we always put in a caveat when we talk about a schedule assuming building permits come on a timely basis. And in Macao, they have come on a timely basis. So but 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, but frankly I don't recall that.
But there is no specific approvals. We know that they're planning to give out tables. And the last thing I heard was everybody is not going to be as happy with the table allocation as everybody would like to be. And that's we'll have to live with that. We think we're in a better position.
Our competitors aren't going to do any better than we have. And we have since everybody all six concessionaires, the primary concessionaires and the sub concessionaires, which we have won, has the opportunity. Everybody is putting for the same number of tables for this. And if they keep the table cap at exactly where they are, we'll get in 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 5 concessionaires, the average of 2 of them because they're averaging 1500 to 1700. And we're in the process of building the St.
Regis and we're putting another 400, 500 rooms here, which is the 4th building on Sands Cortez.
Great. Thanks. And then
We're not seeing any opticals there, Felicia. It's
It's Robin. My other question was
We're having a hard time hearing you. Could you speak into the phone?
Sure. Yes. 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. So just wondering what's going on with collections leading you to be so conservative with reserves?
Thanks.
Hi, Robin. It's Rob. We've always aspired to get a higher percentage of our $1,100,000,000 in Singapore preserved in the 30s and beyond. So it's not we're very pleased where the questions are going. As you know, we're 32% on $11,119,000,000 Comfortable with it.
I think we're being conservative and going to keep that approach because they make sense for us. As you know, it's a challenging collecting money in Singapore as it collects. It's always been the fact that we thought about very honestly, we feel it's difficult and in Singapore, it's difficult because we are dealing with mostly Mainland Chinese customers. So 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.