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Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS -0.37%)
Q4Â 2019 Earnings Call
Jan 29, 2020, 4:30 p.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Las Vegas Sands Fourth Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants lines are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]
I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, speaker Daniel Briggs. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.
Daniel Briggs -- Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
Thank you, operator. Joining me on the call today are Sheldon Adelson, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Rob Goldstein, our President and Chief Operating Officer; and Patrick Dumont, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Before I turn the call over to Mr. Adelson, please let me remind you that today's conference call will contain forward-looking statements that we are making under the Safe Harbor provision of federal securities laws. The Company's actual results could differ materially from the anticipated results in those forward-looking statements. In addition, we may discuss non-GAAP measures. A definition and a reconciliation of each of these measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the press release. Please note that we have posted supplementary earnings slides on our Investor Relations website. We may refer to those slides during the Q&A portion of the call.
Finally, for those who would like to participate in the question-and-answer session, we ask that you please respect our request to limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question, so we might allow everyone with interest the opportunity to participate. Please note that this presentation is being recorded.
With that, let me please turn the call over to Mr. Adelson.
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Dan. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We had a great quarter and a great year across all our markets. Companywide adjusted property EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $1.39 billion, an increase of 9% over the prior year. Our cash flow generation is unmatched in our industry with full year 2019 EBITDA of $5.39 billion. Nobody has ever earned that before in this industry.
Our capital investment programs in both Macao and Singapore are exceptionally exciting with over $5 billion of capital projects, which will be completed over the course of the next few years. These investments will further strengthen our leadership position in the premium mass, mass and non-gaming segments in Asia. Let's now turn to our financial results by the region. In Macao, adjusted property EBITDA was $811 million in the quarter, an increase of 3% over the prior year. In contrast to the 8% decline, that's a 3% increase for us in contrast to an 8% decline gross gaming revenue in the Macao market overall. Pretty good.
We grew our mass gaming revenues by 3% over the prior year with growth in both -- in mass -- with growth in both mass tables and slots. Retail sales remained strong growing by 11% over the prior year. Most importantly, our profitability continues to lead the industry with EBITDA margin reaching 36.2%, up another 140 basis points compared to the prior year.
We couldn't be more excited about our investment of $2.2 billion to expand our critical mass of non-gaming offerings in Macao. We believe there is no better market in the world in Macao with regard to the continued deployment of our capital. The initial trial results at both The Londoner hotel and the Grand Suites at Four Seasons have been very promising and we will update you on our progress in the future.
We look forward to making additional investments in Macao as we contribute to Macao's diversification and evolution into Asia's leading leisure and business tourism destination.
I would welcome the opportunity to invest billions of dollars to expand our hotel, entertainment, retail and MICE facilities in Macao. I believe Macao has the opportunity to become the greatest business and leisure tourism destination in the world and the MICE capital of Asia. We stand ready to make substantial additional investments to contribute to Macao's future success.
In 2019, over 900 MICE events were held in sales channels properties in Macao, with good participation from over 900,000 -- sorry, 800,000 attendees. This is by far the highest number of MICE events and attendees that hosted by any operator in Macao. And indeed we estimate that we represent as much as 90% of the MICE market.
Entertainment is another area in which we contribute to Macao's growth and diversification. We continue to lead the Macao market in this respect as it continues its development as the premier entertainment center in Asia. In 2019, we brought 45 different events to Macao in our Cotai Arena, featuring top Asian and Western artists.
Our leadership in MICE and entertainment are just two examples of our firm commitment to supporting the government's objective to diversify the economy in Macao. Our market leading investment in non-gaming facilities, including hotel capacity, large-scale retail malls and our team tourism attractions, are designed to attract the widest possible range of visitors to Macao.
Having made the largest investment in this economic diversification, we will continue to invest and to work to support the business [Phonetic] for Macao in the future.
With the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the progress of The Greater Bay initiatives, we truly believe Macao has the potential to become the MICE and leisure capital of Asia. We fully intend to contribute to that objective to both our existing assets and potential future of this.
Let me also address another topic, the evolving situation with the corona virus. The current situation is unique and serious. Our top priority [Phonetic] is the health and safety of our employees and guests and we are doing everything we can to support the government both in Macao and China.
Our sales China team is in close consultation with the relevant healthcare and public safety authorities in Macao and we have implemented significant procedures and safeguards. We will continue to implement measures in line with the government direction and hope for a swift containment of the virus.
Now turning to Singapore. Marina Bay Sands adjusted EBITDA was $457 million. Rolling volumes were strong and was 16% higher than the prior year. Mass win per day remains solid. The hotel continued to enjoy strong average daily rate and occupancy. At the same time, annualized retail sales per square foot increased to more than $2,000 per square foot.
Singapore's leading tourism infrastructure continues to receive significant investment. And we are excited to be a part of Singapore's continued growth as a leading business and leisure tourism destination as we develop the Marina Bay Sands expansion. The expansion will include a 15,000-seat state-of-the-art arena for live entertainment events, a hotel tower designed to set a new standard of luxury in the region as well as an additional MICE offerings.
We continue to make progress on the MBS expansion and we'll provide additional updates in the future. We will continue to reinvest in Marina Bay Sands to enhance the customer experience in advance of the expansion.
Now turning to Las Vegas. Our Las Vegas operations had another great quarter with adjusted EBITDA of $120 million, an increase of 20% over the prior year. The hotel convention and slot segments all set yearly revenue records leading to a record adjusted property EBITDA performance in 2019 of $503 million on a whole normalized basis.
Regarding US-China trade relations, phase one of the trade deal between China and the United States has been completed. United States and China coming together to work collaboratively on the future of global trade is good for the US, it's good for China and it's good for the rest of the global economy. Finally, we continue to increase the return of capital to shareholders.
The dividend remains the cornerstone of our strategy for the return of capital and that dividend has continued to grow. For 2020, the Board of Directors has increased the dividend by $0.08 per share to $3.16 per share. At the same time, we repurchased $300 million of stock during the quarter, gain [Phonetic] dividends, gain buybacks.
Thanks again for joining us on the call today. Now, we'll take questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Joe Greff of J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.
Joe Greff -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Good afternoon, everybody. Sheldon, good to hear you again. My first question is going to be probably an obvious topic and to the extent you can talk about it, but just with regards to the corona virus, if there is going to be a lengthy impact that dissuade visitation and spend both in Macao and Singapore, how do you manage to fix the operating expense there? How much flex is there in both respective markets?
And then my follow-up question is, relating -- looking backwards, relating to Macao in the fourth quarter, if you were to parse through maybe you look at it, because you have most [Phonetic] of the numbers that we don't have access to, but how much of an impact do you think Hong Kong protest had versus the travel disruption related to government visit in December? And that's all for me. Thank you.
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Hi, Joe, it's Rob. I'll take -- I want to take the first part of the question. There are two different markets, Macao and Singapore. As you know, Macao visitation, based on the public reports, is down as much as 80%. It's not nearly as higher in Singapore. There has been some adverse impacts, but nowhere near the same level of problem in Singapore as Macao starts there.
As to our offer, our business is revenue dependent. There is no way to hide from the fact we employ tens of thousands of people in these markets and it's an expensive [Phonetic] business to operate. The same way operating leverage swings you in a direction when volumes are good. It swings again to times like this. We're doing our best, we'll do all the paid time off, all things we can do to mitigate. But I think it'd be silly to think that we can make a material impact on operating costs, the real. And that's the problem with these businesses when this kind of thing hits.
Having said that, we've been just [Phonetic] been through a lot of years of problems in Macao and Singapore and Las Vegas, when things like this happen. And this storm will pass. We don't know when. We do know when it passes, we will be first in line in each of our markets to be the biggest investor, most aggressive in Macao. And we've shown our strength in our things that market -- extraordinary market, when it ]returns, we will return with it and do, very, well and keep investing. But I think it would be foolhardy to think we can reduce cost enough to offset what's happening in the -- if this 80% decline continues that's a real problem for any operator.
Your second question, I didn't grasp it. Try that again?The pace of how October, November and December went?
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Oh, OK. Well, October was a terrific month in Macao, extra ordinary month in Macao. Decelerate, as you might imagine with the visit from the President as it has in the past, no surprise there. Deceleration really happened in December. I think it's again predictable. So, I guess you'd look at the month as -- the quarter as October extraordinary; November, strong; and December was soft. No big surprise. I think, we reflect the market in that prospect, very different place in December it was in October. And I think that's all I can say now and I am [Phonetic] sure it's pretty clear to everybody.
Joe Greff -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Got it. Thanks guys.
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Thomas Allen of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Thomas Allen -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Hi. So just sticking with Macao and focusing on premium mass, you had really strong premium mass results in the third quarter and then they were down in the fourth quarter. Do you think that was just mostly a function of President Xi visit or something else going on there on that? Thank you.
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah. So let's break it apart. A great base mass quarter ending up at almost 9%, 8.9%, or something like that. So base mass, we were -- I think our strongest base mass performance on our history, which we were delighted with and that remains a core part of our success. You're right, the premium mass business was not as strong, but still not a bad performance. I think what really is happening here, I wouldn't blame on what happened in the market as much as we are under construction in Four Seasons and in Londoner.
And I think, as you know this market is based upon product, like most gaming, but especially Macao better product win today. We're soon going to open up all the suites of the Four Seasons, all the suites of The Londoner by the end of the year and St. Regis. And I'm pretty confident, we will not just be the leader in the premium mass, but by far the leader. I think the success with the other products to market demonstrate what happens when you build quality product, in Macao people shop for it.
I think our Four Seasons product which is extraordinary, 290 keys base, the size of room between 2,000 and 4,000 feet [Phonetic], St. Regis equally powerful and Londoner. I think we're looking a whole new offering from SCL once these things open up. So I'm very confident our premium mass business reflect, that's our base mass business, strong growth in the time ahead.
As you know we are the biggest investor at Macao with the most committed and these $2.2 billion worth of investments that Sheldon and the Board authorized will pay off enormously in '21 and beyond and '20 as well.
Thomas Allen -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Thanks, Rob. And just as my follow-up. Vegas revenue was really strong, your strongest quarter of the year, but margins were a little light at 25% versus -- first half is 29%. Was there anything unique going on there?
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
No, I just think you're seeing a shift to more non -- I mean, our business as you know is driven by, we have a gaming to follow up [Phonetic], but the non-gaming is powerful. If we can make $0.5 billion a year in Vegas every year, I'll be OK with that, the margins fall a few points. I think what you're seeing is, one thing you should realize with our business is that we are driven -- I mean the -- forget the rooms and the slot machines and the gaming business, but look at our revenues coming out of convention center, almost $200 million this year of revenue coming out of banquets and convention related services, which is extraordinary. And I think that's becoming more and more indicative where our business is heading.
So I would gladly -- as we keep going, and I think we will keep going toward $500 million and beyond, I would gladly trade a few points of margin for more growth in non-gaming. Our gaming performance is good, but as you know visitation from Asia is not as strong at the super high-end Baccarat which has been one of the strengths in Las Vegas. But again we're overjoyed [Phonetic] with the $500 million a year. And if we trade 1 point or 2 point of margins here and there, we're pretty happy. Nothing extraordinary, nothing out of the ordinary.
Thomas Allen -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Thanks, Rob.
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Sure.
Operator
The next question comes from the line of Carlo Santarelli of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.
Carlo Santarelli -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Hey, good afternoon, guys and thanks. Sheldon, for the first time that I could recall, at least, you talked a little bit in your prepared remarks about the trade war and obviously the signing of phase one of the deal. Is that something -- and I don't know with all the other things going on right now in the market that it's -- it would have been discernible, but do you feel that was something that maybe has provided a little bit of a governor on results in Macao and something that you're optimistic as the resolution of phase one and potentially subsequent phases play out you will start to see maybe a better cadence of business across the high-end for the market?
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
I think that it's the perception that the China -- the trade negotiation with China and the contradictions that are inherent there are just perceived. I don't think that they're doing very much. I think people think that if President Trump puts on tariffs on different imports from China that -- and then China reciprocates by putting tariffs on stuff from the US. I talked to my friend Steven Mnuchin when I was at the White House for the signing of the China trade agreement, and he says that they're moving forward -- probably moving forward faster than what people would expect for phase two of the resolution of the so-called trade war. So, although it's perceived to be a problem, it's -- in reality, it's not causing much of a problem.
Carlo Santarelli -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Understood.
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Carlo, I just -- Carlo, it's Rob. Let me jump in and just echo a comment on that. No question, we hear from customers in Asia the importance of resolution of trade war, especially for entrepreneurs and business people who reside in the provinces in China. I think it's very helpful. The war comes to an end. We'll see more confidence. We'll see more growth in their businesses. It translates across all segments, but primarily in the premium mass segment, which is so important to the success in Macao. So, it's very, very helpful and bodes well for the future of our business and our competitors in Macao.
Carlo Santarelli -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Great. Thank you, both. And then just as a quick follow-up. Obviously, the situation right now is difficult to handicap with everything that's going on. But in the event Macao were to decide that maybe the best approach would be to close the casinos temporarily until things stabilize. My understanding is that maybe business interruption insurance wouldn't apply here. Do you guys kind of have a view of how that potentially could play out, if that were to be the path this followed?
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, I'll ask Patrick to respond to that.
Patrick Dumont -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
So how are you? I appreciate the question. I think right now, it's too early to say. I think each operator has different risk management programs. And so, I'm not sure where you have the information coming from. But I think it's something we'll take a look at. Hopefully, that's not something that ever comes down to. We do have a very robust risk management program here. We're actually one of the largest acquirers of certain types of risk products in the market or in various markets. So I think we're very proud of that.
I think we try to protect our balance sheet, try to protect our operations.
That being said, I don't think we can comment specifically on the causes of our policy and the likelihood of that type of event or the coverage that we have, but we are prepared. The other thing to note is we're very fortunate to have a very strong balance sheet. We're very fortunate to have liquidity on hand. And I think we're looking to manage through this in the best way that we can and support whatever initiatives from the government that we need to.
The other thing is I think in the long run we're very cautious with our balance sheet and we expect variability in our markets. And this is something that unfortunately comes up periodically and we have to deal with.
Carlo Santarelli -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Okay. Thank you Patrick.
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
[Speech Overlap] the question. Hope it goes away and resolves quick enough. It's not an issue for us.
Carlo Santarelli -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Understood. For sure. Thank you, guys.
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Carlo.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Stephen Grambling of Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
Stephen Grambling -- Goldman, Sachs & Co. -- Analyst
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. I guess one other follow-up on the corona virus. Is there any way to frame or is there any impact that we should be anticipating as it relates to the construction projects that you have under way now, or is that still something that we should generally be thinking is on track or regardless of the current disruption to be still accelerated to be on track? Thanks.
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Stephen, hi, it's Rob. We don't anticipate any slowdown as a result of virus. Obviously, it depends on what happens in Macao. But as we speak today, we saw no indication at all of that and we're full speed ahead on all of our projects in Macao.
Stephen Grambling -- Goldman, Sachs & Co. -- Analyst
That's great. And then one other quick clarification on Singapore. Obviously, very strong results. If you look at your customer database there, is any of that -- [Indecipherable] you tell if any of that is folks that are transitioning out of Macao because of the Hong Kong disruption or otherwise, or what do you think is kind of driving that underlying strength?
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Great property and great management. No, I don't think we have -- we really can't determine...
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Not to mention our good looks.
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah. We can't determine that. I think Singapore has always been for us a -- it's such an interesting place, great country to visit, culturally in sync with the foreign visitation. As you know the increased levy entrance has made us pivot more and more toward foreign visitation. And we continue to grow that properties in terms of quality of product, entertainment and service to make it more desirable for that customer. So whether -- I don't know if pivoting take [Phonetic] place. But I think we want to make that product so damn good that people want to come more often to Singapore.
It's an incredible product in certain ways, a great country to operate in. very favorable to foreign visitation. So we're very pleased about it. And I think our strength that I believe will continue to grow. I think as we invest more again -- our history has always been the same. We invest heavily in the right places and Singapore is the right place. We're making a huge commitment, both in Towers 1, 2 and 3, as well as our new addition, the arena, etc. So I think our future in Singapore is very bright and that's why we're putting billions of dollars to work there.
Stephen Grambling -- Goldman, Sachs & Co. -- Analyst
Makes sense. That's super helpful. Thanks so much and best of luck.
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Felicia Hendrix of Barclays. Your line is open.
Felicia Hendrix -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Hi, thank you so much. So, Rob just digging back into the premium mass performance in the fourth quarter, if you look at your premium mass growth year-over-year in like each month of the quarter, would it be fair to say that December was the major driver of the year-over-year decline just because of the visitation decline? And then so the lull kind of around the President Xi's visit, or was it similar throughout the quarter. And then I was also wondering, if there is any way you could share with us how things were going in the first 19 days or so of January prior to the outbreak?
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Sure. To your question, December clearly was the problem child in the -- of the quarter. I think that's true of all of our competitors in the market as well. Now it was a great -- October, we thought we're heading for a massive quarter and then it's slowly declined as the quarter went on. As for the -- we didn't see any effect from this virus, the first 21 days was a pretty -- if this call have been a week or two ago, the hold different type of conversation. But very strong in January, I think the market was strong, visitation was good. So it's a real comeuppance to have this whole thing, the visitation being down, I think it's 80% marketwide at this point. But there was no signs in early January of this disruption. It's a recent occurrence.
Felicia Hendrix -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Yeah. Can I -- and I know you guys' focus is mainly on the mass side, but just within those first 21 days, did you see any like change in behavior on VIP? Like is there any reason why we should think once we get past this outbreak and all that kind of stuff that you could -- we could see some improvement in VIP year-over-year?
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah. Felicia, we don't get into that. We don't have a break out the first 21 days other than say visitation was strong and it reflected more of a fourth quarter trend. VIP, as you know, is an enigma. We don't know when it gets better. I've been wrong so often predicting MICE. I won't make that mistake again. I think VIP will resurrect. I think Sheldon's comments about the trade war are indicative of a market that entrepreneurs who populate the VIP segment, via {Indecipherable} direct are influenced by their businesses and their success.And I think today, as usual, premium mass will blossom, keep blossoming, but it's more product-driven. I think the trade war's resolution is very helpful in China, and very helpful for Macao in general.
Felicia Hendrix -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Okay, great. Thank you so much.
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Shaun Kelley of Bank of America. Your line is open.
Shaun Kelley -- Analyst -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. So just to go back to the corona virus and a few of the prepared remarks. Sheldon, I think you mentioned that there -- you're implementing measures in line with government policies. Could you just give us maybe a little bit better sense of what some of those policies or contingency planning looks like at this stage? I mean, again, I think we all know they stopped short of ordering foreclosures. But just kind of -- what's the kind of -- what's the interaction been with the government and how are they kind of helping to smooth over and work with you on the situation right now?
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, the government wants us to measure the temperature of the visitation and to see if there's anybody that's got the virus. And they requested that we put masks on all our dealers, everybody in the casino, we've done that. And whatever else -- whatever other details -- Rob, are there any other details?
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, that's -- Sheldon is right. Across the board, all of our employees now have masks in all the areas. And to Sheldon's point, screening is part of our business now today. And Wilford and the team are in constant contact with the government. We speak daily. And the government -- our job is to protect our employees, our team there and to help the government every way possible to be good corporate citizens in respect to people of Macao, respect to people of China and be as contributory as we can to the resolution of this crisis and we've done that. We're there -- we're actually looking into our contribution, a monetary contribution, into helping into China and Macao, protecting our dealers. So that's job one. And we are in constant communication with mass [Speech Overlap]
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
When [Indecipherable] an operating way.
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah.
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
[Indecipherable]
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
It started with dealers but then went into everybody and masks are in short supply. We're trying to get more supplies to make contributions and Sheldon and the family have asked us to look into what else we can do to help Macao recover and help the government.
Shaun Kelley -- Analyst -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Great, thank you. Thank you for the color. And then just as a -- as my follow-up, but to switch gears a little bit, obviously there's been plenty of questions about the impact on just the financial performance from President Xi's visit. But it felt like a pretty big policy shift as he really, I think, shined a pretty positive light on Macao's future role.
Could you just give us maybe a little bit more color on your take on kind of how that commentary went? Any conversations with the new Chief Executive just how the -- just general tenor of policy is moving forward with Macao under the kind of the new administration, that'd be great?
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
We -- Shaun, we don't -- I'll say this. We have been there for what 18 years, 19 years and I think Sheldon's contribution, this Company's contribution as the biggest investor in Macao speaks for itself. We are raging bulls on Macao's future. We think the last 20 years were great. We look forward to being the biggest investor the next 20 years. And our goal is to invest billions of dollars in Macao.
We have had conversations with the government repeatedly about our desire to invest heavily to make Macao everything it can be. It's already the most important city in the world -- in the gaming world. We want to see it become the most important city in the MICE leisure destination business. We'd like to see more families, more kids, more everybody. And that takes more rooms, that takes more MICE space, that takes more retail, more leisure activity. This city has the potential with the airports and the bridge, the infrastructure to become the most visited city in the world. It could happen if it had the rooms. The demand is there. The supply has to grow.
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
We had 40 million -- 39. million-something [Phonetic], almost 40 million people come in in 2019.
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah. I mean, Sheldon has been very vocal about his willingness to invest heavily. We've spoken [Technical Issues] over the years about that. There is no surprise that we feel. And as the authors of the current -- the Cotai success story, I think Sheldon has listened to pretty well.
We can't speak to what the government plans to do. We don't know. We simply wait for their advice and their direction and we adhere to that. But we've been very vocal on our willingness to invest. We want to see Macao reach full potential. I think in Macao, it's in its infancy. it's in its infancy. Vegas in the mid '90s we built up a nation, was considered a mature city. And it turns out the next 25 years way better than the first 25 years. I think Macao is in that same point where as good as it looks today, Macao has so much potential to do so much more and we have been a raging component of that city's growth and that city's maturation beyond gaming into a non-gaming destination. That's our hope, that's our desire. We await the advice and direction of the government, but Mr. Adelson and the Board is excited to invest in Macao's big, big future.
Shaun Kelley -- Analyst -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Thank you very much.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Robin Farley of UBS. Your line is open.
Robin Farley -- UBS -- Analyst
Great. Thank you. I wanted to ask about Singapore just thinking about how -- I wonder if some of that increase was helped by the slowdown in Macao in December? Can you quantify or just in some ballpark term was the December increase in Singapore up a lot more than the other months in the quarter?
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
I missed the last part, Robin. But I don't think we can quantify -- it's very hard to sit there very honestly and tell you that the downturn in Macao drove customers into Singapore. I think what drives people into Singapore is Singapore. It's a very desirable destination. It's a very desirable building. We think we can continue to grow far in visitation. We continue to invest heavily in making the product better in terms of service and quality of room. So I don't look to Macao's demise to help Singapore's growth. I think --
Robin Farley -- UBS -- Analyst
And I didn't mean -- I just meant there was -- to some degree, was the month of December in Singapore up more than October and November were?
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
We don't want to break it out, but I think we'll treat the quarter as a whole. I don't think -- I wouldn't break it out. I wouldn't do it anyway, but I don't think you need to. The quarter was solid across the board. It was -- the Singapore had a nice solid rolling business and non-rolling business strong visitation. It's just a good month, a good quarter in Singapore across the board.
Robin Farley -- UBS -- Analyst
Okay.
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
I don't think, Singapore -- you might look at obviously as this virus continues that might be an interesting thing to look at the future. But we believe Singapore unto itself is a powerful product and a powerful country that will prosper and grow as we reinvest heavily in it.
Robin Farley -- UBS -- Analyst
Okay.
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Look at the mall in Singapore. If that mall were in the United States, it would be the highest-grossing mall in the country, $2,000 a foot. Now we have a mall in the Four Seasons in Macao that does like $5,000 a foot and say in US dollars in sales. So it's been around the [Phonetic] other malls on Orchard Road.
Robin Farley -- UBS -- Analyst
Yeah. And --
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
A lot of things done over there. We think there's a lot of room to grow, though. We honestly believe we can do a lot better in Singapore and that's why we're investing in future Singapore.
Robin Farley -- UBS -- Analyst
Okay, thank you. And then just my follow-up question. And I feel like Dan is going to say the answer to this. This is buried on Slide 84 or something that is like hard to get through all in 10 minutes before the call starts. So --
Daniel Briggs -- Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
Speaker C-Daniel Briggs
We apologize for all [Indecipherable].
Robin Farley -- UBS -- Analyst
Well, no, no, it's great. But I hope if it is buried in there that you'll be kind. But the question was just thinking about the pace of the quarters this year and the potential disruption at The Londoner, just how should we think about like when to expect like maybe more disruption versus less disruption in the quarters. And actually is a slower environment right now a time to accelerate some of the disruption and say, let's get that out of the way?
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
That's a great -- the second part of your question [Indecipherable] I am curious if there's an -- we don't have the answer today, but I've asked the team to explore that very question. Is there a chance to accelerate construction process in Macao during this slowdown. I don't know the answer of that. So I won't represent. I will tell you having been there a couple of weeks ago in The Londoner and walked through it, it was comical and I thought of people in this call as I walked through dust and jack hammers and construction everywhere and the customers [Indecipherable] playing like crazy.
And I did laugh myself, I said I feel like I'm making up a bad story here to say disruption will happen. I think it will happen. Just don't understand why people keep coming. I guess the rooms are so valuable. We're right now in the middle of building 10 new restaurants with blowing [Phonetic] up a casino over there and redoing it. All the Londoner rooms are in construction, St. Regis, there is a lot of people in that building working on to make it disruptive and yet are not being disrupted. We keep getting visitations. The quarter was very, very good. And I hope I'm a liar and wrong that this market will eventually stop coming to the SEC as it transitions into Londoner.
However, having been there with my own two eyes, I had to stop and chuckle, how busy it was. And the rooms [Phonetic] remain again Macao is underserved from a lodging perspective. You realize that when you walk through Londoner, right, people are sleeping there. They're not necessarily coming from the properties. It's not a destination property, but they're sleeping there. And they're gambling there. And it's just extraordinary to watch. If that building were in Las Vegas, there wouldn't be a soul in there, but in China, it was a much different story. So we continue to tell you when you build a brand new casino, brand new facade, redo, 1,200 keys, build a St. Regis, rip the facade off, someday there'll be some disruption. I just don't know when.
Robin Farley -- UBS -- Analyst
Okay. That sounds great.
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
[Speech Overlap] Dan is going to address that. Dan would have had a slide, but we didn't think of that.
Robin Farley -- UBS -- Analyst
Thank you.
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
All right. Thank you, Robin.
Operator
Your last question comes from the line of Jared Shojaian of Wolfe Research. Your line is open.
Jared Shojaian -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst
Hi. Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks to return. In terms of the visitation declines, are you seeing that more on the mass side or the VIP side? And then for my follow-up, I know the corona virus is quite unique. I don't know, if there is any precedent, or anything historically that would suggest call it one-time interruptions normally lead to pent-up demand. Is that something you're thinking about? Thank you.
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Sure. Two things, we cannot -- at the level of visitation decline we're experiencing, I think [Indecipherable] for us to break out, it's 80% of the market, it's every segment being affected. Let's not be -- let's not try to be cute about this. It's across the board, every segment is in decline for every property. It is no way be anymore honest in that.
As for pent-up demand, I'm a big believer in pent-up demand, the fact there -- and in fact this is killing Chinese New Year. I think when this does resolve, whether it's next month or next quarter -- I don't know when it resolves, I don't pretend to know. There's a very good article in a journal today about the history of these viruses in the last 60 years, 70 years. And they get solved, be the Hong Kong flu, the Russian flu, the Asian flu, the flu I had when I was 12 years old, they resolve. And they will resolve this time, whether that's February or March, I don't know. But when it does resolve, Macao is going to be very, very, very busy because -- whether you know it or not, these folks like to gamble. And we have the biggest and best properties in Macao. They will come back in force. And it's a very, very wonderful market. We're delighted to be there. It's a very strong government that we like working with. And I think the brighter day will come very quickly for Macao. We just don't know when that happens, but you can count on pent-up demand. Believe me, you, there'll be a lot of people there the day that virus is resolved and we will be happy to serve them and welcome them back. So it's a fair question, a good question, and I have a very strong answer. Yes, pent-up demand is a real issue in a place like Macao.
Jared Shojaian -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst
All right. Thank you very much.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]
Duration: 40 minutes
Call participants:
Daniel Briggs -- Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
Sheldon G. Adelson -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Robert G. Goldstein -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Patrick Dumont -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Joe Greff -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Thomas Allen -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Carlo Santarelli -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Stephen Grambling -- Goldman, Sachs & Co. -- Analyst
Felicia Hendrix -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Shaun Kelley -- Analyst -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Robin Farley -- UBS -- Analyst
Jared Shojaian -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst
