More than 39 percent of first-lien claimants against Caesars Entertainment Corp’s senior notes have so far agreed on a plan to restructure the casino group’s current US$22.8 billion debts, the firm said in a filing to Nasdaq in New York on Monday.
The plan involves a voluntary bankruptcy of one company unit and other financial measures that combined should eliminate nearly US$10 billion from the group’s debt load.
“As previously reported, CEOC [Caesars Entertainment Operating Co] will be restructured as a separate operating company and property company, with a real estate investment trust directly or indirectly owning and controlling the property company,” Caesars said in its latest filing.
But Caesars acknowledged in the document that it needs 60 percent support from its first-lien debt holders by January 9 for the current restructuring deal to become effective.
According to the filing, the operating company will issue around US$1.7 billion in new debt and the property company will issue US$3.8 billion in new debt. The brand’s flagship Las Vegas property Caesars Palace (pictured) will issue US$2.6 billion in new debt.
Caesars Entertainment Corp has 44 casinos in 13 U.S. states.
On December 10 it emerged that the Caesars group’s hopes for a new casino resort at Manila International Airport in the Philippines were fading in the short term.
On December 18, the authorities in New York State in the U.S. announced that Caesars’ bid to build a casino resort upstate in Woodbury – an area on the northeast fringes of the New York City metro area – had been rejected.
