{"id":168,"date":"2009-07-28T15:39:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-28T19:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2009\/7\/28\/Aztar-deal-the-worst-ever-its-quantifiable"},"modified":"2022-01-02T16:40:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T00:40:53","slug":"aztar-deal-the-worst-ever-its-quantifiable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/aztar-deal-the-worst-ever-its-quantifiable\/","title":{"rendered":"Aztar deal the worst ever: it's quantifiable"},"content":{"rendered":"

When he acquired Aztar Corp<\/strong>., back in 2006, Columbia Sussex<\/strong> CEO William J. Yung III<\/strong> also became one of the company’s debtors. So what’s his $36 million worth today? According to the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, 100 grand or less. If that weren’t enough to make the ColSux\/Aztar deal the all-time biggest casino-sector wipeout of the last 15 years, consider that Carl Icahn’s “$200 million” credit bid (i.e., no money down) was placed with debt acquired at 27 cents on the dollar. So Icahn has himself a new casino for a tidy $54 million outlay.<\/p>\n

In a less-reported development, Icahn also gained a controlling position<\/a> in Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong>. Without either its Atlantic City or Las Vegas Trops, it’d be a car without an engine, a gaggle of riverboats and motels. Exactly where this leaves CEO Scott Butera<\/strong> and what role he’ll play remains an open question. Hopefully, either his or Icahn’s first move in Atlantic City will be to replace floundering Trop General Manager Mark Giannantonio<\/strong> (a Yung crony) with someone more up to the job.<\/p>\n

Movement at Cosmo<\/strong>: The GM of Caesars Palace<\/strong>, John Unwin<\/strong>, has resigned. He’ll become CEO of the stalled Cosmopolitan<\/strong> in October. While it’s still unclear under whose aegis the casino will be run, Unwin’s hiring is the first concrete move to get some gaming expertise on board since Deutsche Bank<\/strong> seized the property.<\/p>\n

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Whining in Macao<\/strong>: Those two “integrated resorts” in Singapore<\/strong> haven’t even opened yet and won’t for another half a year, but Stanley Ho<\/strong> (whose venerable Hotel Lisboa<\/strong> is seen above) already has his panties in a bunch. According to Bloomberg News<\/strong>, the ancient casino oligarch has been wringing his hands about the burdensome, “serious issue” posed by Macao<\/strong>‘s 39% tax rate.<\/p>\n

Boy, Singapore must be a more serious threat than I’d given it credit, if it’s got a Communist Party suck-up like Dr. Ho all a-twitter and taking issue with the government. He’s still in better shape than his American rivals; the attempt to graft Vegas-style megaresorts onto Macao has left them badly exposed<\/a> to anemic market conditions. Ho’s gambling-centric strategy gives him less cause for worry.<\/p>\n

Today Singapore, tomorrow the U.S.?<\/strong> Even while lender’s remorse has paralyzed American banks and stalled any hopes of “unbundling” the U.S. casino industry, diversification may be coming from an unlikely corner. Malaysia’s Genting Bhd<\/strong>, riding a sustained runup in its stock, has $2 billion in the kitty, is raising more and could pump $7 billion into casino acquisitions.<\/p>\n

That isn’t to say there aren’t a lot of “ifs” and “buts.” Still, Genting’s fundamentals appear far more sound than those of say, Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>. It’s also in a position to deal a serious blow to Sands in Singapore. Not only will its Sentosa Island<\/strong> casino-resort open before Marina Bay Sands<\/strong>, but customers who “subscribe” to a $1,388\/year entrance fee to one casino or another must play exclusively at that casino for the year<\/a>. Once again, Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>‘s inability to finish a megaresort on schedule threatens to bite him in the butt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When he acquired Aztar Corp., back in 2006, Columbia Sussex CEO William J. Yung III also became one of the company’s debtors. So what’s his $36 million worth today? According to the Wall Street Journal, 100 grand or less. If … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,82,15,66,28,14,120,7,22,62,12,108,61,9,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30549,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/30549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}