What: Shares of Caesars Entertainment Corp (CZR) dropped as much as 15% again today after it appeared there was an impasse with creditors. It closed the day down about 6.6%.
So what: Bloomberg reported early this morning that junior bondholders and the company haven't had serious talks about a way to stave off a bankruptcy filing since last month. This is just the latest in a string of bad signs for Caesars, whose biggest subsidiary is in bankruptcy and who is fighting allegations that the restructuring that created the subsidiary was illegal.
What Caesars is looking for is creditor approval to restructure the company, including the creation of a REIT to hold real estate assets. But the company is expecting junior debtholders to take billions in losses from an agreement, so they're comfortable waiting for the company to be forced into bankruptcy.
Now what: As has been the case for years now, investing in Caesars is a huge gamble and one that I wouldn't take. The parent company is insolvent as it is today and without huge concessions from bondholders it won't stay out of bankruptcy. I don't think that's likely given the fact that junior bondholders are only being offered about 18 cents on the dollar, according to reports, and would likely get more out of bankruptcy.
Until the financial mess is resolved and Caesars is making a profit again, I wouldn't go anywhere near this stock.
