Featured Articles Archive - Page 197

Strip land deal revives hope of more transactions

LAS VEGAS -- The idea of Strip real estate carrying a value of $30 million an acre or more has come and gone.This month’s sale of the former New Frontier site — once the Strip’s most expensive piece of real estate — is giving market speculators new hope that resort corridor land transactions could again become active.“It’s good to have something to talk about once again,” John Knott, executive vice president of CBRE and head of its Global Gaming Group, said Wednesday.The consulting and real estate division, which was part of several Strip land transactions in the 2000s, said this weekend’s opening of the $415 million SLS Las Vegas Hotel Casino could catalyze the next wave of Strip development.SLS is a renovation of the former Sahara, a real estate transaction that CBRE brokered in 2007 when SBE Entertainment and private equity firm Stockbridge Real Estate acquired it from the late gaming pioneer William Bennett’s family.Knott said there are signs the market is on a comeback after real estate prices peaked in 2007 when two Israeli companies bought the New Frontier site for more than $1.24 billion, paying about $33 million an acre...read more

Scientific Games-Bally deal gets federal antitrust OK

LAS VEGAS -- Federal antitrust regulators signed off on Scientific Games Corporation’s $5.1 billion acquisition of Bally Technologies, Inc., the two gaming companies announced Wednesday.In a joint statement, the companies said they received notice from the Federal Trade Commission of early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.New York-based Scientific Games, a lottery industry provider, is paying $83.80 per share to acquire all outstanding shares of the Las Vegas-based slot machine manufacturer.The deal is being financed with debt and cash on hand...read more

Scientific Games-Bally deal gets federal antitrust OK

Federal antitrust regulators signed off on Scientific Games Corp.’s $5.1 billion acquisition of Bally Technologies, the two gaming companies announced Wednesday.In a joint statement, the companies said they received notice from the Federal Trade Commission of early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.New York-based Scientific Games, a lottery industry provider, is paying $83.80 per share to acquire all outstanding shares of the Las Vegas-based slot machine manufacturer.The deal is being financed with debt and cash on hand...read more

Caesars works to upgrade balance sheet, but analysts unimpressed

LAS VEGAS -- A leading gaming executive was asked on background a few months ago if he understood Caesars Entertainment Corporation’s financial maneuverings to restructure the casino company’s $24.2 billion in long-term debt.He just smiled.“Gary seems to understand what he’s doing.”For now, Caesars Entertainment Chairman Gary Loveman is an island unto himself.Earlier this month, in a lawsuit filed by Caesars seeking to block institutional investors from interfering with the restructuring efforts, Loveman said the company has undertaken more than 50 capital market transactions to improve the company’s balance sheet and financial condition.Another move happened last week.Caesars struck a deal with several investment groups to trim $548 million in debt off Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., the most heavily indebted of Caesars three business units...read more

MGM Resorts takes steps to regain N.J. gaming license

LAS VEGAS -- MGM Resorts International and the investment arm of company founder Kirk Kerkorian will pay a combined $225,000 settlement to New Jersey gaming regulators to resolve old issues as part of an effort by the casino company to regain its Atlantic City gaming license.The settlement between MGM Resorts, Los Angeles-based Tracinda Corp., and the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement was agreed upon in July...read more

Top-10 bets for the 2014 NCAA football season

There's a special sort of insanity involved in betting college football futures. Unlike the NFL, betting on NCAA futures requires giant leaps of faith, with most teams starting players who have never played college football in critical positions and roles...read more

Turnaround story unfolds for MGM Resorts International

LAS VEGAS -- A few years ago, when the recession had a firm chokehold on the casino industry, MGM Resorts International was a mess.CityCenter opened in December 2009 to cost overruns and a depressed consumer market. MGM Resorts’ stock price was trading in single digits, and the company was looking to unload several hotel-casinos to bolster its sagging balance sheet.MGM Resorts’ survival was actually in doubt.Today, it’s a whole new story.Following the company’s release of second-quarter earnings this month — a profit of $105.5 million on revenue of $2.6 billion — the investment community praised the company and lauded expansion opportunities in the U.S...read more

Strip land values react to deal for Frontier site

LAS VEGAS -- Australian billionaire James Packer wasn’t openly seeking endorsements after acquiring controlling interest in a Strip parcel earlier this month.But he found support from a potential competitor.Packer, CEO of Melbourne-based Crown Resorts Limited, is forming a company with ex-Wynn Las Vegas President Andrew Pascal and investment firm Oaktree Capital Management to construct a hotel-casino on the 35-acre site where the New Frontier once was.MGM Resorts International Chairman Jim Murren was questioned about the transaction during his company’s quarterly earnings conference call a day after Packer announced the deal.“It’s certainly a bullish sign for investors that want to come into the market,” Murren said.Plans for the hotel-casino are sketchy, but that doesn’t concern Murren.“We know they will do something compelling and different,” he said.What caught Murren’s attention: The transaction marks a change for Strip land values.MGM Resorts owns 800 acres on the Strip, much of it under 10 resorts, including the MGM Grand Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, The Mirage, Bellagio and the 67-acre CityCenter.Some of MGM’s land is vacant...read more

SLS could spur Strip's northern tip

LAS VEGAS -- The SLS Las Vegas Hotel Casino is no longer an island. New neighbors are moving into the old neighborhood at the northern end of the Strip.The old Sahara’s location at a somewhat desolate intersection at Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue was a disadvantage, said SBE Entertainment Group, LLC CEO Sam Nazarian.Nazarian said the reopening will revitalize the location...read more

SLS builds future of its own on Sahara's past

LAS VEGAS -- After the final hand of blackjack was played and the last customers were ushered out of the Sahara on May 16, 2011, operator Sam Nazarian taped a handwritten note to the hotel-casino’s padlocked front doors: “Be back soon!”Standing there 39 months later, Nazarian gazed toward the remodeled casino and resort now called SLS Las Vegas Hotel Casino — a $415 million, 18-month transformation of the 59-year-old Rat Pack-era property into a modern hotel-casino built for the audience of today.The SLS Las Vegas will be christened the Strip’s newest resort in a lavish Friday-night VIP reception, with the property unveiled to the public shortly after midnight Saturday.Nazarian, 39, is CEO of Los Angeles-based SBE Entertainment, LLC, a privately held nightclub, restaurant and hotel company...read more