Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Las Vegas Sands Corp., the casino that raised $2.1 billion of capital last week, will ``survive'' and recover from the ``very rough 18 months'' ahead for the casino industry, Chief Operating Officer William Weidner said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which said earlier this month there was ``substantial doubt'' that the Las Vegas-based company would be able to continue as a going concern, withdrew the warning after the share sales, according to a Las Vegas Sands regulatory filing today.

Las Vegas Sands said Nov. 14 it completed a sale of common and preferred stock and warrants to repay debt and finance development projects. Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson and his family invested about $525 million. That was in addition to the $475 million he injected Sept. 30.

``We feel very confident that this plan fully funds our development plans through the opening of Singapore,'' Weidner, who is also president, said at an investor conference in Las Vegas today. It ``gets us through what we anticipate to be a very rough 18 months approximately ahead of us until we see recovery, somewhere in 2010 or 2011.''

Adelson was ranked the third-richest man in the U.S. by Forbes magazine before the shares tumbled 94 percent this year. The casino owner needs the cash to avoid violating the terms of some U.S. loans and triggering defaults that risked forcing it into bankruptcy, the auditors said Nov. 6. Sands this month said it would delay construction of Macau resorts and Las Vegas condos to focus on finishing a $5 billion Singapore project and the casino part of its Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, site.

`Monumental Screw-Up'

The decision to inject more capital was ``a matter of robust debate within the organization,'' Weidner said. The company, its shareholders and board took too long to decide, ``a monumental screw-up,'' he said.

The common stock was sold at $5.50 a share, and Goldman, Sachs & Co. was the sole underwriter.

Las Vegas Sands advanced 42 cents to $6.53 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

The shares have plunged this year because investors are concerned dwindling casino revenue in Las Vegas and Macau and the global financial meltdown will sap the cash it needs to pay for expansion projects and loans.

While Adelson, 75, adds funds to the company, executives may be showing dissatisfaction with the way he's running it. Las Vegas Sands said last week it set up a board committee to address ``outstanding differences between our chief executive officer and other senior management members,'' and that the board was addressing a ``loss of confidence by certain senior management members in the management of the company.''

``You can think of it as a junkyard dogfight,'' Weidner said today in response to a question about the disagreements. ``We've got four or five A plus personalities and a couple of A minus personalities and the moderates are the As, so you've got personality types who are focused and interested in executing.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Beth Jinks in Las Vegas at bjinks1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 17, 2008 19:44 EST