\nLAS VEGAS (AP) \u2013 A cash-strapped division of casino giant Caesars Entertainment Corp. said early Thursday that it filed for bankruptcy protection in Chicago, hoping the court agrees to its plan to get out from under $18.4 billion in debt.<\/p>\n
\tThe division, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., owns and operates most of Caesars\u2019 50 properties worldwide. Caesars CEO Gary Loveman said in a statement that its casino-hotels would remain open and continue to host meetings and events, assuring customers that their loyalty points would still accrue and the company\u2019s lineup of onstage entertainers would perform according to their schedules.<\/p>\n
\tCompany officials say they intend to continue paying its suppliers in full.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI am very confident in the future prospects of our enterprise, which will combine an improved capital structure with a network of profitable properties,\u201d Loveman said in the statement.<\/p>\n
\tThe bankruptcy filing doesn\u2019t apply to parent company Caesars Entertainment Corp. and affiliated companies Caesars Growth Partners and Caesars Entertainment Resort Properties.<\/p>\n
\tMore than 30,000 people are employed at the debt-laden division\u2019s 38 casino-hotels, including Bally\u2019s and Caesars in Atlantic City and the iconic Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.<\/p>\n
\tIn a video message posted online, Loveman said employees would continue to receive pay and benefits as usual.<\/p>\n
\tThe filing from Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. in a Chicago bankruptcy court came as no surprise.<\/p>\n
\tThe company has been weighed down by sizable debt ever since Apollo Global Management LLC and TPG Capital LP and other investors bought the casino giant in January 2008 for $30.7 billion, using $6.1 billion of their own cash and paying the rest with $24.7 billion in debt.<\/p>\n
\tCaesars has been negotiating with creditors and lenders for months on a reorganization plan that would turn the division into a real estate investment trust \u2013 one to own properties and the other to lease properties \u2013 promising creditors cash or new debt.<\/p>\n
\tNot everyone is on board, though, including three junior creditor hedge funds owed $41 million that contend the plan isn\u2019t fair. In a bid to get more favorable terms, they filed a petition Monday in Delaware\u2019s federal court to force the division into involuntary bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
\tCaesars Entertainment Operating Co.\u2019s own filing Thursday could set off a \u201csideshow\u201d of jurisdictional wrangling to decide where the case would be heard, Delaware or Illinois, said University of Michigan law professor John Pottow.<\/p>\n
\tCaesars\u2019 lawyers have noted the division doesn\u2019t own or manage any casino-hotels in Delaware.<\/p>\n
\tCathy Reece, director of law firm Fennemore Craig\u2019s bankruptcy practice, pointed out that Enron filed for bankruptcy in New York, rather than in its home state of Texas, and the court agreed. It\u2019s up to the company as long as it can prove a connection to the area, she said.<\/p>\n
\tSeveral casino-hotels owned and managed by Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. are in the Midwest including two in Illinois, Harrah\u2019s Joliet and Harrah\u2019s Metropolis, and the Horseshoe Hammond casino in Indiana near Chicago, the company explained in a filing with the judge in Delaware.<\/p>\n
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LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2013 A cash-strapped division of casino giant Caesars Entertainment Corp. said early Thursday that it filed for bankruptcy protection in Chicago, hoping the court agrees to its plan to get out from under $18.4 billion in debt….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}