\nHoward Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal \u00b7 February 5, 2015 at 4:53 pm
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\n\tCaesars Entertainment\u2019s new chief executive will earn $1.8 million a year in salary, according a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.<\/p>\n
\tMark Frissora, who was named CEO designee by the casino operator on Wednesday, can also earn up to 150 percent of his base salary in bonus pay, has use of the company aircraft, and will receive \u201ccertain relocation benefits\u201d for moving to Las Vegas, the SEC filing said.<\/p>\n
\tFrissora, 59, spent seven years as chairman and CEO of automobile and equipment rental car company Hertz Global Holdings. On July 1, he will replace Gary Loveman as CEO of the casino company.<\/p>\n
\tOver the next four months, Frissora will work with Loveman, who will remain chairman of Caesars after the CEO transition.<\/p>\n
\tAccording to the SEC filing, Frissora was awarded an option to purchase 1 million shares of Caesars Entertainment common stock.<\/p>\n
\tLoveman, who has been with Caesars since 1988 and was CEO since 2003, earned more than $7.6 million in salary and other compensation in 2013.<\/p>\n
\tThe CEO change comes less than a month after Caesars placed its largest operating unit into a pre-packaged bankruptcy to eliminate almost $10 billion in debt. The reorganization, overseen by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago, may take up to a year to finalize.<\/p>\n
\tCaesars, which has a gaming industry-high $22.8 billion in long-term debt, has been attempting to restructure its leverage for several years. The restructuring of Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. will reduce the division\u2019s $18.4 billion debt load.<\/p>\n
\tCaesars is seeking court approval to convert CEOC into a publicly traded real estate investment trust. CEOC controls Caesars Palace, Caesars Atlantic City, Harrah\u2019s Reno and more than a dozen regional properties.<\/p>\n
\tCaesars is majority owned by private equity firms TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management.<\/p>\n
\tWall Street had a somewhat mixed reaction to the management change Thursday, a day after the news was revealed following the markets closing bells. On Thursday, shares of Caesars, traded on the Nasdaq, closed at $11.51, up 22 cents or 1.95 percent amid a broad market rally.<\/p>\n
\tKim Noland, director of high yield research, at Gimme Credit, an independent research service on corporate bonds, said Frissora has experience with public and private companies, but his departure from Hertz last fall causes some concern.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHertz is facing accounting issues dating back three to four years,\u201d Noland said.<\/p>\n
\tThe CEO change was not a surprise, Noland said, adding \u201cthe decision may be mutual with the private equity owners who are looking for a longer term plan for the remaining entities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFitch Ratings analyst Alex Bumazhny said Frissora\u2019s background in the auto rental industry might seem a bit unusual initially.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cRunning a casino company would take some getting used to,\u201d Bumazhny said. \u201cBut there are some core competencies Frissora can leverage at Caesars from his Hertz days, including managing complex customer data, information technology and logistics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tLoveman, a former Harvard Business School associate professor, didn\u2019t have \u201cyour stereotypical casino CEO\u201d background when he took over the company, Bumazhny said.<\/p>\n
\tMGM Resorts International Chairman Jim Murren wished both Loveman and Frissora well through a statement. He pledged to work with both executives during the next four months.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cGary is a thought leader and a forerunner in our industry in many areas,\u201d Murren said. \u201cMore than that, he is a friend. Along with his colleagues throughout the industry, I extend our best wishes in his transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Howard Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal \u00b7 February 5, 2015 at 4:53 pm Bookmark and Share Caesars Entertainment\u2019s new chief executive will earn $1.8 million a year in salary, according a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mark Frissora,…<\/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-8626","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\/8626","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=8626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}