By Grace Leong

SINGAPORE - Amid bullishness on Las Vegas Sands Corp's (LVS) stellar fourth- quarter earnings and its first-ever dividend payout, analysts have cast the spotlight on Marina Bay Sands' (MBS) higher bad debt reserves as the global economy slows down.

In the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2011, MBS generated US$426.9 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda), and its Ebitda margin came in at 39.6 per cent. That compares with Ebitda of US$305.8 million and an Ebitda margin of 54.6 per cent a year ago.

MBS raked in net revenue of US$806.9 million for the quarter, up from US$560.4 million a year ago - a 44 per cent jump.

'In another industry first, we had two properties in two different markets - Marina Bay Sands in Singapore and The Venetian Macao in Macau - that both produced Ebitda in excess of US$1 billion (for FY2011). This past year truly showed the power of our integrated resort (IR) business model and its ability to generate tremendous revenue,' said Sheldon Adelson, LVS's chairman and chief executive.

He added that the company's growth was not fuelled by just a single revenue source. MBS's food and beverage revenue in Q4 was up 41 per cent at US$54.2 million; mall revenue rose 56 per cent to US$40.1 million; and hotel room revenue grew 50 per cent to US$76.4 million.

'You could point this strong growth at retail, food and beverage, meetings and conventions or the US$1 billion a room revenue the company did in 2011 as clear evidence that we are much better described as an international integrated resort developer rather than simply a gaming company,' Mr Adelson said.

But MBS's rolling chip volume, or business from VIP tables, dropped 36 per cent to US$10.8 billion in Q4 from US$16.7 billion in Q3. VIP gaming revenues totalled US$8.1 billion in Q4.

CIMB analyst Loke Wei Wern said MBS's year-on- year earnings growth was impressive, but its quarter-on-quarter comparison 'lacked spark'.