Friday night, Caesars Entertainment
As in the first sale announced last month, Caesars is not giving up much. Bally's New Orleans is by far the last-place player in the New Orleans market, which consists of Harrah's land-based casino and three riverboats. As it is, Harrah's generates more action than the three riverboats combined.
Also similar to last month's deal, the Bally's New Orleans sale comes with a somewhat familiar partner: Harrah's sold its Vicksburg, Miss., property to Columbia Sussex last year.
New Orleans Gaming Market | |
---|---|
Casino | Revenues* |
Harrah's (HET) | $310.0M |
Boomtown (PNK) | 117.9M |
Treasure Chest | 111.0M |
Bally's (CZR) | 60.1M |
The companies expect the transaction to close by the end of Q2 2005. Caesars doesn't expect to report either a material gain or a loss on the deal.
In July, in response to the previous month's merger agreement between Las Vegas Strip giants MGM Mirage
Last month, Harrah's and Caesars announced the sale of four properties to an affiliate of Colony Capital for $1.24 billion (see Harrah's/Caesars Expects Payoff and Smooth Sale for Harrah's?). Both companies announced third-quarter earnings last week (see Vegas, Horseshoe Boost Harrah's and Looking Up at Caesars).
Fool contributor Jeff Hwang owns none of the companies mentioned above.