The 2015 Annual Meeting of the Stockholders of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. Will please come to order. My name is Rob Goldstein. I am the President and Chief Operating Officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp. I thank and welcome all of you for your interest in our company.
As President of the company, I will preside at this meeting. The agenda for this afternoon includes all formal business stated in the proxy statement. Following this meeting, we will conduct a Q and A. Please note that this meeting is being webcast on our Investor Relations website, which we accessed at www.sands.com. Thank you.
Also present at the meeting today are Sheldon G. Allison, our Chairman, Chief Executive Officer other members of our Board of Directors Jason Ader, Irwin Chaffetz, Michelin Chao, Charles Forman, Steven Gerrard, George Jamieson, Charles Koppelman, Michael Levin and David Levy. Ira Rafelson, our Executive Vice President and General Counsel is also here today. Ira Rafelson will act as Secretary of the meeting. Each of you is given the rules of conduct when you entered the meeting room this morning.
Additional copies are available in the registration area. It is our intention to conduct this meeting in accordance with the agenda and rules of conduct. Please remember that an opportunity will be provided immediately following the formal portion of the meeting for questions and discussion. Let us now proceed with business of the meeting namely, 1, to elect 4 directors to our Board each for a 3 year term to consider and ratify the selection of Dwight and Touche LLC as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ended December 31, 2015 to consider act upon a non binding advisory proposal on the compensation of the named executive officers and lastly to transact such other business as may properly come before this meeting or any adjournments thereof. Will the Secretary please report on the mailing and notice of this meeting to all stockholders and the availability of the stockholders list.
Ira? Mr. President, Mr. Chairman, I have an affidavit of mailing of the notice of Internet availability of the proxy materials to each stockholder of record as of the close of business on April 13, 2015. I also present an alphabetical list showing all persons who were holders of record of the company's common stock at the close of business on April 13, 2015.
The date the Board of Directors fixed is the date for determining stockholders
entitled to the notice
of and to vote at this meeting. The the transfer agent of the company's shares. This list has been available for inspection for the 10 days prior to this meeting at the company's headquarters and is available for examination by any stockholder of the company for any purpose germane to this meeting at any time during the meeting.
Will the secretary please file the list of stockholders the affidavit of mailing and copies of the notice to Internet availability of proxy materials transmit to stockholders with the records of the meeting?
Yes, Mr. President.
Donna Attensborough of American Stock Transfer and Trust Company has been asked to act as Inspector of Election at this meeting. Ms. Ansborough is present and has submitted an oath of office, which will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. I will now ask those that are present with proxies who have not already done so please file their proxies with the inspector at this time. If there are any stockholders present in person who did not register the door and have not filed a proxy please provide names please provide your names, number of shares owned the attendance at the door at this time.
Will the inspector now report whether a quorum is
present? The shares outstanding at the record date, which are entitled to vote at this meeting, consists of 798,000,006,000 267 shares of common stock. From the count of the stockholders present in person or by proxy. A majority of those shares are represented at this meeting either in person or by proxy and a quorum is present.
Okay. Thank you. On the basis of the report of the Inspector, I declare a quorum present and I mean duly convened and competent to proceed with the transaction of business. The purpose of this stockholders' meeting is for our stockholders to vote from the matters listed in the proxy statement I described a few minutes ago. Votes will be taken on these matters after all nominations and proposals have been introduced.
Thereafter, the Inspector of Election will make a report on the outcome of the votes. We will now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. Please note that after each of the matters to be considered has been formally proposed, we will circulate written ballots so the stockholders who have not already voted by proxy may vote on these matters. The first order of business is the nomination of our 4 individuals to stand in connection to the Board. All of the company's nominees are present here today.
I'd like to introduce them to you at this time. They are Jason Ader, Michelin Chow, Michael Levin, David Levy. All the nominees are current members of our Board. Is there a motion on the proposed election of the 4 nominees?
Mr. President, I nominate Mr. Ader, Ms. Chao, Mr. Levin, Mr.
Levy for election to serve as directors for a 3 year term and until their successors have been duly elected and qualified.
Are there any questions or comments with respect to the proposal for the nomination of directors? If there are no further nominations, a motion to close the nominations is in order. Mr. President, I move that the nominations
be closed.
It has been moved and seconded that the nominations be closed. We will collect and books and records of the company for the year ended December 31, 2015. The Audit Committee of the Board has selected Deloitte and Touche LLC. I am pleased also to note the presence at the meeting today of Ed Ricks and Karl Bruner of Deloitte and Touche LLC. Mr.
Ricks and Mr. Bruner are available to answer any questions that shareholders may pose. Any questions? Okay. I'll now entertain a resolution to ratify the selection of Deloitte and Touche LLC to audit the books and records of the company for the year ended December 30 one, 2015.
Mr. President, Mr. Chairman, I move that the following resolution be adopted, resolved with the selection of Deloitte and Touche LLC to audit the books and records of the company for the year ending December 31, 2015 be confirmed, gratified and approved in all respects.
The motion has been moved and seconded. We will collect and tabulate the votes later in the meeting. I will now entertain a resolution to act upon the non binding advisory proposal
compensation. Mr. President, Mr. Chairman, I move that the following resolution be adopted: Resolve that the shareholders approve the compensation of the named executive officers as disclosed pursuant to the compensation disclosure rules of the SEC, which disclosure shall include the compensation discussion and analysis, the compensation tables and any related material disclosed in the proxy statement.
I take the motion.
The motion is moved and seconded. We will collect and tabulate the votes later in the meeting. I now declare the polls open for voting by ballot. All those who wish to vote by ballot should obtain a ballot from attendant. If you have already filed your proxy, it will simplify the account who would not fill out a ballot unless you wish to change your vote.
Has everyone voted who wishes to vote? Apparently everyone has. I therefore declare the polls closed and ask the inspector to prepare a report the voting. While the inspector is counting the ballots, I would like at this time to give Mr. Sheldon G Allison, our Chairman and Founder and Chief Executive Officer an opportunity to say a few words about the company.
Sheldon?
Thank you, Rob. And thanks to all of you for joining us today either in person or by webcast. I'm pleased to report to you, our shareholders, that 2014 was another very success wide developer and operator of convention based integrated resorts. Despite the challenges in the Macao market, we delivered another year industry leading financial performance, setting records in net revenues, adjusted property EBITDA, cash flow from operations, adjusted net income and diluted earnings per share. These results reflect the continued growth of our business in Macau as we capitalize on the tremendous long term opportunity to serve China and the broader Asian region with our portfolio of integrated resort properties on the Cotai Strip as well as growth at the iconic Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
While the Macau market is experiencing some headwinds today, I remain as confident now as I have ever been. Challenging operating environment in Macau, our industry leading financial strength enables us to stay fully committed to our investments and our and portfolio while investing for future growth. 2nd, we will nurture new integrated resort development opportunities in new markets. And 3rd, we will pay generous recurring dividends, which we have every intention of going in the years ahead as our business and cash flow grows. In addition, we will return excess capital to strong growth and outstanding returns to shareholders in the years ahead.
The confidence we have in the strength of our in Since we initiated our capital return program in 2012, we have returned over 8.6 $1,000,000,000 of capital to shareholders of Las Vegas Sands in the form of dividends and share repurchases. In the Q4 of 2014, we announced that the Las Vegas Sands recurring dividend would increase by 30% to $2.60 per share or $0.65 per quarter for the 2015 calendar year. To that I say, to interest and the interest of other shareholders are aligned. My interest are exactly the same as yours and yours are exactly the same as mine. So we're heading in that direction.
We continue to head onwards and upwards. Needed for capital expenditures and investments in new integrated resort developments will be returned to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases. Moving on to maximizing profitability at our existing properties. In 2014, we delivered another year of industry leading financial performance. As I mentioned before, we set records in net revenue, adjusted property EBITDA, cash flows from operations, adjusted net income and diluted earnings per share.
In Macau, we are very well positioned for future growth. We have the diversity of product offering, the scale and critical mass to cater to every type of business and leisure visitor. Macau property portfolio continues to generate market leading visitation. And in 2014, we welcomed nearly 70,000,000 visitors to our resorts. Our MICE based integrated resort business model and unmatched investments clearly position the company well as travelers from China and in Asia more broadly increase their business and leisure travel and expenditures in the year ahead.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term MICE, We are not animal. Abusers. Mice means meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions. It's an Asian term that's widespread over there and it's not a other European or U. S.
Term. So I'll explain that to you. With the completion of the St. Regis Tower at Sands Cotai Central later this year in around 6 months' time from now and the opening of our next integrated resort development on the Cotai Strip, the Parisian Macau. Next year in 2016, we will have invested in excess $13,000,000,000 to deliver on our promise to help Macau and its economic diversification and its continued evolution into the world's leading business and leisure tourism destination.
Our industry leading investments will feature New nearly 13,000 hotel rooms. 2,000,000 Square Feet of retail mall offerings. And nearly 2,000,000 Square Feet of mice capacity. The prison will be a highly themed destination integrated resort that will replicate familiar landmarks from Paris, including a standalone 40 story Eiffel Tower, shopping experiences that replicate a stroll down the Champs Elysees and of course, the famous Arc de Triomphe. I'd like to point out that like there is a Eiffel Tower here in Las Vegas and that has 2 legs going through the building.
I'm happy to say that all four legs of our Eiffel tower governing is going to be outside and visible to the visitor. Of course, we'll have the restaurants and we'll have the elevator going up there. Importantly, what I'd like to say is that our Eiffel Tower is about the same height as the one you have here. In Macau, there was a height limit because we're so close to the airport. So that's the maximum that we could make it.
If we didn't have that limitation, we build it just like the original Eiffel Tower. But I think everybody will get the picture. Importantly, the benefits of our integrated resort business model will always extend far beyond our own financial success. As if that wasn't enough. The company's properties and service offerings featuring world class dining, shopping, conventions, group meeting and entertainment experiences enhance the appeal of our host countries as business and leisure tourism and provide meaningful career development opportunities for our host communities.
We are confident our MICEbase integrated resort business model could provide meaningful economic benefits in additional countries in Asia and particularly in Japan and Korea. We believe our unmatched track record of successful convention secure and capitalize on the most promising global integrated resort development opportunities. I might add while this only says Japan and Korea that we are still looking and aggressively, let's call it, lobbying countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan. So whatever country comes first, we think we're in the leading position because those countries have seen the government people going on to Marina Bay Sands and they stand down there. They stand outside and they point to and say, Give me one of those.
And we'll give one of those. Not exactly the same. It will have to be a little different. We also see opportunities for growth here in Las Vegas and out of property in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Thank you once again for your support and for the confidence you continue to show in our company.
I would also like to take a moment to thank our nearly 50 1,000 team members worldwide for the hard work over the last year and congratulate them on a job well done. We look forward to sharing with you the ongoing success of the company in the years ahead. And I look forward to Thank you.
Let us now proceed with the voting results. Is the Inspector ready to report?
Yes, sir. The results of the are as follows. In the election of directors, Jason N. Adar, Micheline Chao, Michael A. Levin and David F.
Levy have been elected directors of the company by the affirmative vote of a plurality of the votes cast at the meeting. With respect to the ratification of the selection of Deloitte and Touche LLC as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ended December 31, 2015, the proxies and ballots representing a majority of the votes cast by stockholders present in person or by proxy and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of the resolution and therefore the selection of Deloitte and Touche LLC as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for year ended December 31, 2015 has been ratified. With respect to the non binding advisory proposal on the compensation of the named executive officers, the proxies and ballots entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of the resolution and therefore the proposal has been approved.
Thank you. On the basis of the report of the Inspector, I declare that the resolution is covering the election of 4 directors to the Board of Directors, the ratification of the selection of Dwight and Touche LLC as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015 and a non binding advisory proposal on the compensation of the named executive officers have all been approved. Will the inspector please prepare a written record be filed with the records of the meeting?
Yes, I will.
Thank you. If there are no other business to come before the meeting, a motion
is in order that the meeting be adjourned. Mr. President, Mr. Chairman, I move that the meeting be adjourned.
I second the motion.
Is the move then seconded that the meeting be adjourned? All those stockholders in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Those stockholders opposed, please say no. The motion is carried.
The meeting is adjourned. At this point, we would like be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the company. If you have a question, please rise and identify yourself, so we maybe have a complete record for the meeting. Please note that the question and answer period is being webcast on our Investor Relations website. So let's proceed with the Q and A.
Any questions?
Gentlemen over here to my left. Yes, please.
Good afternoon. My name is Joe Little. I'm from I run Hughes Little Investment Management out of Vancouver. We are stockholders. I noticed
that Pardon me? Smart move.
I read the Galaxy's curious on where the Parisian or what our expectations are for the Parisian in terms of number of tables? And if we find ourselves in that situation, clearly that would change the economics of the new project. Maybe you could comment on that.
I'll let Rob comment then.
Thank you. We obviously wait for the government's advice on how many tables. And as in the past, we have a belief that based on what we have done previously in Macao, we'll be treated very favorably. We have no way to know it's 150 tables, 500 tables. We just don't know.
Galaxy and other competitors recently took a page of our playbook by doing more non gaming amenities. We've been there for 10 years. When Sheldon really authored the strategy for Cotai, people found it fun to laugh at, but it couldn't make sense. Today, it's obviously the most important real estate in the gaming world. Along with that strategy, he also brought lots
of
retail, restaurants, Myspace, etcetera. I believe that strategy is was very, very well advised then and even more so today. The government has stated that's one of the reasons how they give tables. So we're hoping for a favorable decision as regards to Parisian. But there's no way of knowing.
That's a government decision and we'll stand behind it. And you should keep in mind, we have tables. We can be a little more adaptable, if you will, than Galaxy and some of our competitors, because we've built buildings there previously. We have a lot more tables than others. We build a lot more buildings.
We invest a lot more capital. So we're a little more flexible in that regard. But again, we're waiting for the government and hope that our history proves to be very helpful in getting a fair number of tables.
When the cap went on, I think it was in 2010 or 2011. We already where's the general I sit down. We already had 1500 plus tables. That was consistent with the critical mass of sleeping rooms and the size of the casino that we planned specifically for growth and specifically to focus on the mass and the premium mass market. That's the lower end and sort of the middle end.
And the high end, we really didn't want to push when we first started. In each of our properties, whether here in Vegas or Macau or in Singapore, we always open with a reliance mostly on the mass market. And our fundamental structure including our 1500 plus tables is more than any other the 6 concessionaires. I don't want to say that we don't need the tables. We do need more tables.
But to the extent that we have more tables in our other five properties that we could take it's never that every single table performs exactly the same. It's usually the core and the periphery. The core, the busier part of the casino is open more hours and you get more hours out of each table per 24 hour period per day. So we're going to now that the VIP market is sort of drying up and flying away. So to quote an old expression.
We are still doing what we call premium direct. That means instead of going through junket reps, we deal directly with the customers that we know and with whom we have a very good credit and collection experience. So we're going to do what the government wants us to do and try to put in to make up. We asked for 4.50 tables because that's what we felt that we needed when they said, okay, how many tables you're going to need? So everybody put in 500, 550, we put in 450 to say we can get along with 450 tables.
But we will have tables that will move from the VIP market down to the mass and the middle mass market between the mass and the VIP. And we expect that, that will until we can get some more tables from the government, we expect that, that will accommodate what we need. Did I fully answer your question? Yes, I
Hi. My name is Martin Capella. I'm a local stockholder. I wanted to ever since last year's stockholder meetings, I have expected that there would be a drawback over in the Orient. And I see that there is, and I'm sure we'll be able to cope with that.
What I did want to say was I am very glad that you're holding the meeting here this year in Las Vegas because Las Vegas is a place where we want our customers to come to hold their meetings. And by holding our meeting here, we kind of bring that forward a little. So I want to thank you for that. Thank you very much. You're welcome.
My name is Joe Halloran. I live in California, well, north of Santa Barbara. And I've been a shareholder since March of 2006. So I want to thank for the amazing work you guys have accomplished in those years. It's been a wild ride, needless to say.
You're telling us.
Yes. Watching from afar, I can't even appreciate what you guys have done or gone through, but you've certainly done a lot. And my family appreciates it too. 2 just questions I was trying to stay current on and never sure if you're reading or hearing the right information. 1 is the status of the condo service apartments as far as monetizing them?
And the second thing is, what is the latest time frame on the highway from Hong Kong? And I'll sit down. Thank you.
I have been discussing with there's been new ministers, they call them secretaries. There are new ministers or secretaries that have been appointed for decision makers. There seems to be a little inconsistency and what people think. Meeting solved that. So the powers to be, the powers that are said, you get certain people together, we will have a joint meeting and we will move this thing forward.
And rather than we have delayed selling the Four Seasons and now what will be the St. Regis apartments because they've given us permission to sell on a co op basis. The manner in which we would like to sell, we commonly refer to as condominium basis. Over there, they call it strata title, which means every floor, I guess, is a different strata and title can transfer because of whatever strata it's on. And I'm going over there next week, not this coming week, the week after.
And we're setting up the meetings that have been requested with the responsible parties together, and I'm hopeful that they'll give us the okay to go back to the original request that we had of selling condominiums. I wouldn't have built the St. Regis if I didn't have the okay to be able to sell them. So we could sell them by co ops, but it's much better we'll get a much higher price if we could sell them under what's called strata title. And what was your second question?
Road from Hong Kong.
Road from Hong Kong was supposed to be finished originally in 2016, then it jumped to 2017. And then they say, oh, well, there was some engineering error in some undersea connection. So then they say, oh, that had been fixed. So now they're back to 2017. And of course, the price, like all big infrastructure projects, has increased substantially.
So we're hoping it will be open on 17th. It's people have been quoting for years years that it will be a game changer for Macau. And one of the reasons there is because the bridge is starting on the island called Lantau Island, l a n t a u, Lantau Island, where the Hong Kong International Airport is. Now if you go from and Disney World is there, the Disneyland, whatever they call it. And if you come out of the airport and you go one way, you're going to a 45 minute car ride into Hong Kong Island.
You go through Kowloon, the populated expansion of the peninsula of the mainland and there's Victoria Harbor, which separates that from Hong Kong Island. So to go to Hong Kong Island is 45 minutes. You come out of the airport and go to the other side and in 20 minutes, you're Macau. That is a promise holds the promise of bringing a very substantial amount of additional business from not only Hong Kong, but from there are 180 cities that are serviced by the 100 Airlines that service the Hong Kong International Airport. So I say that essentially it could be named the Hong Kong and Macau International Airport.
Although there's also another airport, the main airport of Macau was in Macau off of Typer, the first island that you come over any one of 3 bridges to from the peninsula, what's called the peninsula. Macau will have the Peninsula. Macau will have a second airport. That is a true international airport, one of the biggest airports in Asia, where there's a say 180 cities being served by 100 Airlines already. So you don't have to build it up.
This is going to be could be a game changer for us. It could bring in people. It will improve the MICE market, so people can get there very easy. Right now, you go to the airport and then you either had to wait for a ferry and they didn't have regular service until we put one of our ferries there. They had irregular service from Shuntak, our competitor in the ferries.
And now to regular so people I know my people when they when they travel over there. They take a plane that will get them closer to the to the ferry connection. But from now on, you can go there any time. Just cut on the road in 20 minutes, you'll be in Macau. Did I answer your Okay.
Well, we'll get to you next. Sir?
Thank you. My name is Stefan Wolf. And first, I'd like to acknowledge the Board of Directors for shaping the vision of Mr. Adelson over the last number of years. I'd also like to thank the management company for executing the vision.
And Uncle Shelly I'd like to thank you as you're affectionately known around our household for driving the dividend push. So which leads to my question
I told you our interests are aligned.
Which leads to my question. It's a currently today even though we've had what a 10% move in the last win this year having to pull back on their dividend. And let's not get in that situation. So what's the thought process about slowing the dividend increase down so that we don't get in that position?
We wouldn't have announced the dividend we did if we didn't have a thorough analysis and sensitivity analysis, which means how low the things have to go before we our commitments are in jeopardy. So that's called a sensitivity analysis. And we just have a more conservative approach. And when is a great operator, he focused primarily in Macau on the high end of the market. And he's very good at that.
He's better than we are at that. And but we are much better at the mass to the medium, Hyola. And so we have been very conservative in our estimates of how much money we have and under what circumstances. We have stressed the sensitivity analysis so that in worst case, we could still pay the dividends and still that's the basis that we had that's the criteria we had to meet. So that we had enough money in the event any one of these 5 countries that we're pushing for become a reality.
So we think we're just more conservative in our estimates.
And then my follow-up question would be, would we discontinue the stock buyback or first prior to the dividend situation we'd get into? I mean
we're We figured everything involved. Future development, which is very important. The stock buybacks, the dividend, would we have enough money and without having to borrow any money. We have monetizable assets that are reasonably quickly monetizable. That is all of the retail malls, including the mall at the Four Seasons, which frankly had US7000 dollars per square foot in sales, on which we get a percentage, is the highest sales per square foot U.
S. Dollar terms of any mall in the world. So we have taken a very conservative approach. And the last thing I want to do is announce a dividend and I announced that we intend to increase dividend 10% there hasn't been a time that I haven't kept my word. When in 2008 and 2009, it was advised by investment banker that we needed money.
I stepped up and I got a vote from my family and my grown Children from my dear wife. That I could put $1,000,000,000 back into the company. And we did. So I want to point out to you that nobody in my family, including my wife and I, have sold a share of stock since the time you bought in, in 2,006. That's 9 years we haven't sold a single share.
If I thought things were going to hell in a hand basket, you would think that I would sell some stock to further diversify, but I haven't. And I have no intention at this time to do so. Okay, let's go over to this quiet side.
So it's quicker this way. It's right here. Yes.
Yes. This Mike, there's no extra charge to use this one.
My name is Gary Tilden. I'm a Las Vegas resident. I've been a stockholder since back in 'six at $3 a share.
Anyway I Do you want to preface on that? I'll be happy to give you a pour.
My one of my concerns is I firmly believe that the stock is extremely and very badly undervalued. I compare it with other institutions and it I compare it with other institutions and it doesn't seem to be getting the price in the marketplace that it deserves. And I also believe that one of the ways to increase the value to the stockholders and the stock price is for increased dividends contrary to previous speaker. But someone's got to pay for that. It's got to come from somewhere.
What I want to know is have you guys considered a REIT, which is many of the other corporations are doing and using the money that you save in taxes toward increased dividends.
I don't think we have we've considered those monetizable mall assets retail mall assets that we have, considering put them in a REIT. We're talking about it. We're looking at it. We're consulting with people, our investment bankers and other people that have more experience in REITs. And we can't put our Singapore Mall in REIT yet because the government before 2017.
Well, that's not too far away from now, but we're considering it. But it will take a while to get all the land leases in Macau in which the you can't old you can't own fee simple in China. They won't sell a piece of the motherland. So our leases would have to be changed and it would take a little while to do that. We are more actively seeing what we can do to monetize.
We could sell. We probably have anywhere from $8,000,000,000 to $12,000,000,000 worth of retail assets in Macau. So with our we have a net debt that means our gross debt minus cash on hand is down to about $6,000,000,000 I think. And we can that's why I'm not concerned about the debt. Our interest rate by the way is down to in most cases below 2%.
When we first opened the property in which we're now sitting, our interest rate was 10.5 percent for the 1st mortgage and 14.25 percent for the 2nd. That's quite an improvement. Quite an improvement. So we were our credit rating was lower than whale doo doo and we now have 2 out of 3, we expect the third one to give us an investment grade rating like the other 2 have. So we're now at a corporation and investment grade rating.
So we've had a big change. So people took a close look at our balance sheet. We should have been long time ago investment grade.
Well, I still don't understand whether stock price is so low compared to what your balance sheet does show. I mean, it just doesn't make sense.
It doesn't I agree with you. It doesn't make sense in comparison with the other companies in our sector. But the sector being not such a big sector in the world, it's not like oil and gas and lots of other and food, lots of other industries where the sector is very large. We only have just go down. And the opposite when we go up.
So the only way for us to differentiate is if we get a new emerging them who is in the pole position, who is the leading candidate to get an IR and they'll tell you Las Vegas Sands. So if one of those occurs, we will certainly differentiate ourselves from the rest of the pack. And if 5 Star goes up, they won't be able to go up
with this.
Yes. Because like I said, it just doesn't it hasn't made sense for years. So I don't know. Anyway, one other thought.
Again, I want to point out. I haven't gotten discouraged and I haven't sold a share.
Yes. Well I wished I hadn't sold. My $3 shares, I mean, I made 400 percent or 500 percent of my money thought I was a big deal. Now if I was sitting on them today, hand me a gun. Anyway, one other thought was and I understand it's been bandied about and I don't mean it as a joke.
Has the consideration been, well, let us say Wynn is sitting on its knees begging for it again, a Kerkorian style hostel takeover that could be purchased probably for less than the price half the price of building a casino. Has this thought been considered?
We and our investment bankers have considered all possibilities. I can't say that we have any conclusion. Wind is operating in exactly 2 out of our 3 big markets remote thought. Because one has to consider That the name of the property is winning. It was it when it isn't still there running them.
The property is just as good as When he is there running. So there are a lot of other considerations, And I don't want to do a hostile buyout when and I have become very friendly.
That's what I understand.
Yes. He was over in my house with his lovely wife, Andrea, last night at a fundraiser we had. And so I'm not interested in having any confrontation with a friend.
That's what I kind of suspected. But I have a feeling that others are looking again too because he's making the same mistakes he did before.
Listen, you can't the man has, along thank you. He's also helped to change the face of Macau. So you can't say that the man is not a very good operator. He's very good operator. I tell you the truth.
I keep telling Steve that Las Vegas could be significantly rejuvenated. All he had to do was develop one more property. He could do a better job than I can and create a mystique. About his properties, and he pre promotes them. Extensively.
So he could bring Las Vegas back to where it was before by developing another property.
What I was concerned with is because I was also a large wind and I say was a large wind stockholder. The stock seems to be somewhat manipulated. That's just an opinion.
His stock or our stock?
His stock.
I mean we don't
know. But I mean it's
We have enough to do watching our own stock. We don't have to watch this.
Yes. When you drop $100 a share, you get real concerned.
Well, he's got 1 8th the number of shares outstanding. So you're not comparing apples to apples. You're comparing apples to rice. I mean, it's completely different.
I think I'll stay with LBS.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
My name is Henry Kronberg. I live in Las Vegas. I'm a stockholder. As long as you're talking about Mr. Win, I'd like to have your opinion because Mr.
Win recently expressed a very pessimistic outlook of Las Vegas economy. May I as you kindly express your opinion?
We disagree with him on that issue. We think and we see we don't see a what analysts have lately been calling a V shaped recovery that at one point the drop is going to stop and immediately go straight up. It will be sort of a U shaped recovery. And that's what we're experiencing. We are not pessimistic about Las Vegas.
That's what I'd like to hear. Thank you. Sir?
Good afternoon. My name is Tom McCarthy, shareholder. I just have just a question that's not quite as deep as the previous ones. We've got a piece of unfinished business in the front of the hotel with that construction. Any idea as far as completion on that?
And what's going to happen with that?
You mean the tower? Yes. At this point a few options, but nothing concrete to talk about. No. Okay.
Still a possibility. Some mentioning things have come up recently, but nothing we want to talk about today. Okay. Thank you. Thanks.
Good afternoon. Hi. My name is Steve Case. I'm a stockholder. And I'm wondering about the reduction over in China of 22,000,000 visitors and if that's going to be lifted soon and how is that going to affect the organization?
You mean the cap not the reduction.
Yes, the cap.
Yes, on the cap. There's not there is no cap at this point. That was one person's comment that perhaps should be considered, but that hasn't actually occurred. There is no cap right now. And we're hoping there isn't.
Okay. I hope so too.
But Sheldon addressed the last trip over there. And I sense it's hopefully it's not going to happen. It'd be bad for all
of us. Yes. Well, you guys have been doing a great job and I thank you for it. And if I could ask one
other question? Nope. That's it. One question. Please, I'm just kidding.
Please, please.
I don't know if you can even speak about this one, but it's about Jacobs. And I just wonder if you have any comment on Jacobs. That's all.
We don't like him.
Thank you, Mr.
Allison. I've said it a 1000 times before. When the smoke about Jacobs is cleared, there won't be any fire underneath it. And I guarantee that.
Any other questions?
Please. That's it. One more You're welcome. We feel the same way. As you know, my wife is was born and raised in Israel.
You didn't know that. Born and raised, we published Israel's leading newspaper called Israel Today in English, In Hebrew, which is Israel, Hayom. Hayom means today in Hebrew. And we have a home there. We have a lot of relatives, my wife's relatives.
As a matter of fact, older boy, 18 years old that just graduated high school last week. He's over there right now with 24 of his classmates. So we have a big interest in
Israel.
The first Jewish President. When is he coming? When is he coming?
He was all going so well.
What do I think of David Anserud? Not much. You're right about that. That means a piece of garbage. Yes.
And you're being very kind.
Any other questions? If not, we thank you for your time, for your interest and your support of our company and wish you a good day. Thank you.