Harrah's Posts $47.8 Million Loss in Q4

Harrah's Entertainment has posted Q4 2007 losses of $47.8 million -- largely the result of a $169.6 million pre-tax write off of certain intangible assets, including the London Clubs International purchase.

Revenues remained healthy, growing 8.1 percent to $2.63 billion on the quarter. Annual revenues hit $10.8 billion, an increase of 11.9 percent over 2006.

Last year Harrah's was taken private by its new owners, Apollo Management and TPG, in a $27.8 billion deal. This latest financial report is therefore likely to be its last that will be open for public view.

Harrah's indicated this week that it will try to obtain some of the 16 casino licenses that may soon become available in the United Kingdom.

The company acquired London Clubs International for $596 million (£300 million) in 2006, anticipating that the deal would position it to take advantage of the United Kingdom's broad new gambling reform laws.

The British government has since scaled back its plans for casinos drastically, banned smoking in casinos, raised the gaming duty, and most recently scrapped its plan for a supercasino in Manchester.

The good news for the company is that several competitors -- including Las Vegas Sands, MGM Mirage, Rank, Gala and Ladbrokes -- seem to have little desire for the 16 licenses.

Speculation remains, however, that the credit crunch in America has dampened ownership's efforts to syndicate its debt funding, and that as a result they may wish to withdraw from their European expansion plans, which also include slow-going supercasino projects in Spain, Slovenia and Hungary.