Venetian Las Vegas Sold
Last year Las Vegas Sands announced their flagship Venetian resort on the Las Vegas Strip was for sale for $6 billion. Following the death of Sands founder Sheldon Adelson in January, the company has now announced the sale along with a name change removing Las Vegas from their name.
Venetian Las Vegas Has 2 New Owners
As part of the deal, Venetian and the Sands Convention Center along with about 7,000 rooms, 2.3 million square feet of convention space and 225,000 square feet of gaming space has been sold for $6.25 billion. So who bought this iconic property on the North end of the Vegas Strip?
The answer to that question is a bit complicated, but to start here are the details of this blockbuster sale:
- Apollo Asset Management is paying $2.25 billion for the operating assets and liabilities
- VICI Properties is paying $4 billion for the real estate
VICI & Apollo Have An Interesting Past
This purchase is quite intriguing considering VICI owns properties like Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and was a spinoff from Caesars Entertainment in 2017. While they own the land of Caesars Palace and many other Caesars properties, they do not operate the casinos. Caesars Entertainment does not have anything to do with this purchase.
On the operations side Apollo will be running Venetian, although we don’t have a ton of details about how that will work. Apollo isn’t new to the gaming industry though. In 2008 they bought Harrah’s Entertainment which was later renamed Caesars Entertainment. When that company was sold to Eldorado Resorts last year Apollo owned 30%. The company is also purchasing the Great Canadian Gaming Company.
Sands Focusing on Asia
It is all a bit complicated, but in the end Venetian will be under new ownership and Sands will be able to focus on the Asia market where the bulk of their properties are including many in Macau and the iconic Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Sands no longer will own any properties in the United States following this sale. They previously sold their Sands casino in Bethlehem, PA in 2018.
When talking about the sale and the company’s future Robert Goldstein Sands Chairman and CEO said, “This company is focused on growth, and we see meaningful opportunities on a variety of fronts. Asia remains the backbone of this company and our developments in Macao and Singapore are the center of our attention. We will always look for ways to reinvest in our properties and those communities.”
MtM Vegas – Venetian Las Vegas Sale
This sale has tons of moving parts including strange Caesars Entertainment tie-ins and the construction of the iconic MSG Sphere. What will this mean for Las Vegas? Check out our special MtM Vegas episode covering this news above. Mark and I break down the news and what we think this means for the future of Sands, Venetian and Vegas!
Venetian Las Vegas Sold – Bottom Line
I’ve long been saying Las Vegas is beginning to move into a massive transitional period. This is one step of many that will bring Vegas from its era of being ruled by a few companies to something new. What Vegas becomes as part of this transition is yet to be fully seen, but no doubt the times they are a changing. What do you think?
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