Las Vegas Sands may buy back as much as $800 million in loans. To examine that possibility, it has hired Goldman Sachs, but Chairman Sheldon Adelson says there are “no present plans” to do so.

“It’s an option more than anything else,” Adelson said.

Adelson said the motivation for the discussion is the discount. “Buying back something of your own that’s selling cheap” is attractive, Adelson said. “The other opportunity is to reduce the thing and give us more wiggle room on our covenants.”

The company would finance the buyback with some of its $2.8 billion in cash holdings, some of which was contributed by Adelson himself.

The buybacks would be conducted via a modified Dutch action that would establish a $25 million face-value minimum on each offer, the company said in today’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The program would be in effect through September 2010.

Adelson says he has met some “serious people” in Asia who are considering helping to finance the $12 billion Cotai Strip development in Macau. The project has been halted for six months as gambling revenue for the company slipped.

“We believe they have the money and they’re going to start due diligence process now,” Adelson said, without identifying any of the potential investors.

LV Sands plans to sell the retail malls, which are a main part of the development.

“No option is going to be off the table,” Adelson said. “There’s no assurance that anything’s going to be done. There’s probably as good a possibility of something not being done.”

By Casino Connection Staff