Although its cash flow improved 47% this year to date, Hooters Casino Hotel continues to dribble red ink — losses incurred, in part, by its ongoing bankruptcy soap opera. And although it has close to $10 million in the till, according to principal guarantor Canpartners Realty, it isn’t paying down debts such as the $747,000 owed to International Game Technology. Instead, it appears to be blowing through cash on hand as quickly as possible, for instance, by hiring Innovation Capital to shop around the casino-hotel, on what are some pretty sweet terms for Innovation.
Despite having run up debt more than double the casino’s value, management essentially wants to chuck its obligations and be kept in the driver’s seat. That’s mighty bold coming from an executive team whose property is $181 million in the hole. What, one wonders, have they done to deserve such a vote of confidence from the bankruptcy court? Considering that the Hooters-augmented business model has inarguably failed in Las Vegas, it’s time for the casino to either cash in its chips or at least for some new thinking (i.e., people) in the executive suite. Giving the current regime a blank slate to continue Business As Usual will, in all likelihood, find another underwriter getting stuck with a big tab down the road.
Another Barrack triumph. As predicted here, the Las Vegas Hilton foreclosure is an inside job. Goldman Sachs wants a receiver put in charge of the failing casino-hotel, which is partly owned by Goldman subsidiary Whitehall. The bottom line is that Goldman and Grammercy Capital Corp. would like hopelessly inept majority owner Colony Capital out of the LVH. Colony has mismanaged one casino after another into insolvency and worthlessness. Dollars to donuts, Goldman’s hope is that by getting these screwups off the premises, Hilton Worldwide can persuaded not to haul down its flag at year’s end or at least give Goldman a brief reprieve in which to prove itself. Since it was Colony’s bright idea to bring Whitehall into the LVH in the first place, dunce CEO Tom Barrack has no one to blame but himself.
