SINGAPORE – Marina Bay Sands plans to tap banks for a loan of as much as $10 billion as the luxury casino operator seeks to expand its hotel and entertainment business, according to sources.

The Las Vegas Sands-owned resort may start marketing the deal as early as next quarter, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The plan will include the rollover of a delayed drawdown facility, refinancing of existing loans and new debt. Terms may change as deliberations are at a preliminary stage, the people said.

Las Vegas Sands denied the report. “We are neither in the market nor looking for $10 billion in loans,” said Mr Ron Reese, senior vice-president of global communications for Las Vegas Sands. 

A deal of $10 billion would be the biggest-ever syndicated loan in Singapore funded in the local dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The jumbo financing plan would complement Marina Bay Sands’ rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic as Singapore faces an influx of tourists, including those from mainland China.

Its parent said in an October filing that the cost for the Singapore casino operator’s expansion plan, which includes a hotel tower with luxury rooms and convention facilities, would “materially exceed” the initially estimated amount of $4.5 billion due to inflation and higher material and labour costs.

Like for its earlier loan in 2019, Singapore lenders DBS Bank, OCBC Bank and UOB, along with Maybank Securities, may be the lead mandated arrangers and book runners in the new deal before it is broadly syndicated to other lenders, the people said.

While a bulk of the new deal will be used to refinance its existing debt, Marina Bay Sands will look to borrow an additional amount of as much as $2 billion as part of the package, the people said.

A previous syndicated loan record in Singapore was a $9.3 billion facility signed in 2012, which backed the acquisition of food and beverage maker Fraser & Neave by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi’s TCC Assets. BLOOMBERG