(Bloomberg) — Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, is selling shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. valued at $2 billion so the family could purchase a controlling interest in a professional sports team.
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The family already has a binding contract to purchase a team, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. The Adelsons will use the proceeds from the offering and cash on hand to purchase the team, “subject to customary league approvals.”
The team is an NBA franchise in a major market and a deal will be announced soon, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. Marc Stein, who writes about professional basketball on Substack, reported that the team is the Dallas Mavericks, owned by billionaire Mark Cuban.
A spokesman for Sands and the Adelsons declined to comment beyond the filing. Cuban and Mavericks representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Adelson, an Israeli-born doctor, has led the family since her husband’s death in January 2021. Her son-in-law Patrick Dumont is president of Sands, which owns casinos in Singapore and Macau.
Although the family sold the flagship Venetian resort in Las Vegas to Apollo Global Management Inc. last year, it remains closely tied to the American gambling capital. They own the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper and the company is still based there.
According to the latest proxy statement, Adelson controls approximately 433 million shares of Sands, or more than 56% of the total shares outstanding. The shares sold represent about 11% of these holdings.
She is worth about $33 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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Shares of Sands fell 3.2% to $46.15 in extended trading after initially falling further.
The shares will be priced at $43 to $45.25 each, according to a term sheet seen by Bloomberg News. That range represents a discount of up to 10% from Las Vegas Sands’ share price of $47.66 on Tuesday, Bloomberg calculates.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. are bookrunners of the sale.
– With assistance from Amy Or and Randall Williams.
(Updates with team in third paragraph.)
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Originally posted 2023-11-29 00:22:13.