{"id":4883,"date":"2010-10-18T11:19:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-18T19:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=4883"},"modified":"2024-01-24T04:39:04","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T12:39:04","slug":"harrahs-on-new-spending-spree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/harrahs-on-new-spending-spree\/","title":{"rendered":"Harrah’s on new spending spree"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"As predicted and dreaded by skeptical bond analysts, proceeds from Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong>‘s semi-IPO of 17% of the company, it has been officially disclosed, will be rolled into retail therapy<\/a> for CEO Gary Loveman<\/strong>. An anticipated $575 million will be used to A)<\/em> buy into a pair of Dan Gilbert<\/strong>-owned casinos in Ohio<\/strong>, B)<\/em> finish the mothballed Octavius Tower<\/strong> (above<\/em>) at Caesars Palace<\/strong>, C)<\/em> revive the “Linq<\/strong>” mall-plus-Ferris wheel project<\/a> on the Strip and D)<\/em> put the remainder toward “another potential casino management and partial ownership opportunity<\/em>.” I’d say there’s a 95% probability that’s a reference to the erstwhile Foxwoods<\/strong> project in Philadelphia<\/strong>, with about a 5% chance that Harrah’s is alluding to the Palms<\/strong> (although the private-equity funds that own Harrah’s did conduct a panty raid on George Maloof<\/strong>‘s debt not long ago).<\/p>\n

Paying down part of at least $20.8 billion in debt<\/a>? Not such a big priority at Harrah’s HQ, it seems. However, the Octavius completion and Linq revival will put jobs back into the Las Vegas<\/strong> economy and, in the latter case, spruce up one of the tattiest parts of Harrah’s stretch of the Strip. So two cheers for that. Interesting how the Octavius Tower is a “go” project now that Uncle Carl’s Carpet Barn<\/strong> — The Failsino Formerly Known as Fontainebleau<\/strong> — is looking less and less likely to be completed.<\/p>\n

On a somewhat related note<\/strong>, why has it taken until now for CFO Jonathan Halkyard<\/strong> to receive a Nevada<\/strong> gaming license? He’s held his current title for over four years. There’s something very wrong with the Silver State’s licensing process if the licensing process has become that much of a laggard.<\/p>\n

M-barrassment<\/strong>: Did a too-opaque bidding process cost Lloyd’s Banking Group<\/strong> a decent return on the M Resort<\/strong> loans it sold to Penn National Gaming<\/strong> last week? It’s starting to look that way<\/a>. Meanwhile, even though Penn’s effectively taken itself out of the picture, talk of selling The Rio<\/strong> won’t go away. Harrah’s is between something of a rock and a hard place: It cannot, under any circumstances sell The Rio<\/strong> for less than $300 million and even a sub-$425 million sale would incur financial penalties imposed by mortgage-holding bankers. Unless Colony Capital<\/strong> can be suckered<\/span> enticed into paying top dollar for The Rio, Harrah’s could be stuck with it for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As predicted and dreaded by skeptical bond analysts, proceeds from Harrah’s Entertainment‘s semi-IPO of 17% of the company, it has been officially disclosed, will be rolled into retail therapy for CEO Gary Loveman. An anticipated $575 million will be used … 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":[3,28,14,4,59,64,7,71,69,95,25,9,17,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883"}],"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=4883"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33001,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883\/revisions\/33001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}