Carl Icahn reportedly considering fresh bid for Caesars
Carl Icahn is reportedly preparing to make another bid for Caesars Entertainment, and Wall Street is watching the debt market first.
According to a report in Bloomberg, Jefferies Financial Group has been gauging investor interest in roughly $5bn of debt financing. The money would support a possible acquisition offer from Icahn for Caesars, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The approach is arriving at the last minute. Caesars has already struck an all-cash deal to sell to Fertitta Entertainment, with the transaction valued at around $17.6bn, including assumed debt.
Shareholders would receive $31 a share under that agreement. The door is not fully shut, though, as Caesars has a go-shop period that runs until 11 July, giving the board a narrow window to test whether a better offer is out there.
Icahn’s possible offer is said to value the business at $33 a share. That would top Fertitta’s accepted price and force Caesars’ board to weigh whether a superior proposal has emerged.
No final decision has been made by Icahn, and the financing effort remains subject to change.
Icahn knows this company better than most outside agitators. He helped force the last major turn at Caesars, pushing the 2020 Eldorado Resorts merger after the long drag of its bankruptcy years.
That history makes this approach harder to dismiss as just another late bid. Caesars now has Strip casinos, regional properties and a sizeable digital betting business, so any fight for control would reach well beyond Las Vegas.
Caesars’ stock has been declining over the past six months and took another fall this month. On 1 July, the stock sat at $30.41, its highest of the month. As of the afternoon of 8 July, it was down to $29.82.
Potential to redraw the Vegas landscape
Any completed sale would would shift control of a major Las Vegas employer, landlord partner and marketing engine.
For the industry, another credible bid would sharpen the pricing benchmark for large casino assets. Public casino operators have traded under pressure as investors question debt loads, digital-betting losses and uneven Las Vegas visitation.
However, a bidding contest would suggest that strategic buyers and activists still see value in cash-generating resorts.
Caesars still has four Strip names with real weight: Caesars Palace, Paris Las Vegas, Planet Hollywood and Harrah’s. Whoever buys the company gets the rooms, casino floors, restaurants, loyalty base and the next round of capital spending.
It would have a hand in future room upgrades, restaurant deals, loyalty rewards, union talks and the spending rhythm of one of the city’s biggest casino landlords.
The city has also become more dependent on integrated resort owners with national databases. Caesars Rewards remains one of the industry’s most powerful loyalty systems.
A buyer able to pair it with restaurants, sports, online betting and entertainment could tighten the link between casino floors and non-gaming spending.
Fertitta details regulatory path and financing plan
Fertitta Entertainment executives have laid out their closing process before Nevada gaming regulators as the Icahn threat hung over the transaction.
General counsel Steven Scheinthal and chief financial officer Richard Liem appeared before the Nevada Gaming Control Board on 8 July, per Buck Wargo with CDC Gaming. They did not address Icahn’s possible bid directly. Instead, they focused on financing, antitrust review and licence approvals.
Scheinthal said Fertitta expected to file a Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust application on 13 July. That filing would begin federal competition review of Fertitta’s properties and Caesars’ assets.
Gaming approvals will take longer. Fertitta executives told regulators they must secure approval in every relevant jurisdiction where Caesars owns gaming assets or runs online gaming.
Scheinthal estimated that the wider regulatory process would take about 9-10 months.
The financing plan also carries practical risk. Fertitta has a commitment letter from a bank syndicate but would rather raise money in the market if interest-rate conditions improve. If not, the committed banks would fund the debt, though likely on less favourable economic terms.
Caesars shareholders also still have to sign off. The company will first file a proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, wait out the review and then send the papers to investors.
One Strip issue will not disappear quietly. Fertitta owns a stake in Wynn Resorts, even as he pursues Caesars. Scheinthal told Nevada regulators the holding is passive and Fertitta does not plan to sell it.
That carries a lot of weight amid the Icahn proposal because Wynn and Caesars chase the same Las Vegas customer: premium rooms, casino play, conventions, restaurants and the high-limit crowd.
The result is a deal now moving on two tracks. Fertitta is working through the formal approval machinery, while Icahn is testing whether lenders will back a richer bid.
https://next.io/news/investment/carl-icahn-considering-fresh-bid-caesars/