In ancient Rome, if you’d lost the equivalent of three-quarters of a billion dollars (worse: $761 million and change, plus flat revenues), you’d swig some hemlock, open a vein or maybe fall on your sword. But the only thing more alien to Caesars Entertainment than atonement is accountability. So CEO/President/Chairman Gary Loveman proclaimed, “We made considerable progress on the execution of our strategy and achieved key milestones on many projects during the quarter despite continued softness in the domestic gaming business.” You’d think Caesars had improved business when its losses actually widened from a trifling half-billion dollars a year ago.
On the Las Vegas Strip, Caesars really did do better (up 5%), but many of its gains were already cannibalized by the costs of its Ferris wheel, Linq and The Quad. In Atlantic City, Caesars will scrape up a little extra cash by selling the Claridge Hotel to a developer from Florida. Debt maturities have been pushed back until 2018 (why not just be realistic and aim for 2080?), meaning that the grim footrace between debt service and EBITDA will continue. Loveman hopes to find $420 million from the sale of Caesars’ Macao golf course in his Christmas stocking, so that ought to help.
More on this story as it develops.
Not again! Yes, again.
