S&P lowers Las Vegas Sands

Standard & Poor's said it lowered its corporate credit and issue-level ratings on the Las Vegas Sands Corp. family of companies - including Las Vegas Sands LLC, its Venetian Casino Resort LLC subsidiary and affiliate VML U.S. Finance LLC - by one notch. The corporate credit rating was lowered to B+ from BB-.

The ratings remain on CreditWatch with negative implications, where they were placed on July 16.

The agency said the downgrade reflects increased concerns around Las Vegas Sands' liquidity position given current issues in the capital markets, continued weak performance on the Las Vegas Strip and the potential for a significant slowdown of the growth trajectory in Macau, all while the company seeks a significant amount of capital to fund its development pipeline.

The BB- rating had relied on a strong growth trajectory in both Las Vegas and Macau following the spike in leverage ahead of the openings of the Palazzo in Las Vegas and the Venetian in Macau, S&P said. As of June 30, consolidated total debt leverage stood at 9.8 times, and the agency does not anticipate meaningful deleveraging over the intermediate term.

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