* Financing to be completed in ‘matter of days’-CEO

* Sale a part of efforts to boost financial strength

* Shares up 2.6 percent (Adds analyst comment, share price, CEO quote)

NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) – Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS.N), the world’s largest casino company, has secured commitments to raise up to $600 million through the sale of exchangeable bonds, the company said on Wednesday.

The bonds will be “mandatorily exchangeable” into common shares of the company’s Macau unit pending the unit’s successful initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

In a statement, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson said the company expected the financing to be completed within “a matter of days.”

The sale is part of Las Vegas Sands’ efforts to boost its financial strength, the company said. It recently amended its $3.3 billion Macau credit facility and plans to take one of its subsidiaries public.

The financing would “enhance our current liquidity position and further our efforts toward reaching long-term financial stability,” Adelson said in a statement.

The company’s shares rose 35 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $13.80 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The financing will prevent looming U.S. debt covenant breaks in the third and fourth quarter, Bernstein Research analyst Janet Brashear said in a research note.

She added that the $600 million figure exceeded the $500 million the brokerage expected.

“Without this stop-gap measure, we had projected that LVS would have approximately $100 million too much debt at September 30 and approximately $400 million too much debt at December 31,” she wrote.

Brashear, who has an “outperform” rating on the stock, also said the financing indicates confidence in a strong IPO, “assuming the financing is fully subscribed.”