This is taking stock with pim Box and Kathleen Hayes on Bloomberg Radio. Caesar's Entertainment It's number three eight on the Fortune five hundred this year. Once the fast growing star of the gaming industry, Caesar's is now a mess. It is the site of a battle between some very big and powerful buyout firms and some very big and powerful hedgephones, or the outcome of a January fifteen bankruptcy filing.
In fact, today Caesar's Entertainment Corps telling the most in more than a year after judge ruled that it must face bond holder lawsuits that could force it into bankruptcy. Alongside its main operating a unit joining us now is Stephen Church, bankruptcy reporter for Bloomberg News in Welmington, Delaware. Steve, welcome, Thanks, good to be here. So first step, why, why why did Caesar's Entertainment stumble so badly? And why has the
bankruptcy become such a battle. Well, they had a buy out several years ago, I think it was two thousand eight or so that added a lot of debt. They took the company private and the company simply hasn't been able to keep up with those debt payments. Over the years, they've made several attempts to restructure, and finally in two thousand fifteen last year, Caesar's put its main operating unit into bankruptcy. Now you have two units. Now you have
two Caesars. Really, you have a Caesar's it's publicly traded, that is still not in bankruptcy, and then you have its main operating unit, which is struggling with creditors. That's created a mess that they're trying to sort out in two courts, in bankruptcy court in Chicago and in courts in Delaware and New York. Give us in a nutshell,
what's one side arguing against the other. Bottom line is the some uh Second Lean bond holders believe that the non bankrupt company, Caesar's Entertainment Corps, should pay the debts of the bankrupt company, and the Caesar's Entertainment based in Las Vegas, has said no, we we legally and legitimately shed those debts and we no longer are responsible for paying the it's more than five billion dollars in Second Lean debt. The court in New York is ready tomorrow
to hear final arguments about who's right on that issue. Okay, and uh, what what is the latest ruling in terms of its import and what it tells us next? Absolutely, the latest ruling came out of Chicago bankruptcy court, where a judge said, go ahead, bondholders, you can sue in New York and move forward in New York and try
to win. The reason that has upset the shareholders and Caesar's is they think they might lose Caesar's Caesar's and might lose this case in New York, and which case the parent company could join the operating unit in bankruptcy, and in shareholders in that case are much more likely to be wiped out. How much money is it stake? And you know, could all this uh you know actually force the company to go completely under? I mean it could because Caesar's Caesar's um overall value is only a
couple of billion dollars. The non bankrupt company to Las Vegas, Company's only worth a couple of billion dollars. When you look at what it's market capts, it's facing liabilities that are at least five billion, possibly as much as eleven billion dollars depending on how the courts in Delaware and New York rule, all that debt could come crashing down
onto the parent company, and there's just no way. Everyone admits, Caesar's admits, and all of the bondlers admit, there's no way that that that Caesar's could pay that debt and remain solvent. Stephen Church, thank you so much for just a masterful wrap up of what's going on with Caesar's Entertainment. He's bankruptcy reporter for Bloomberg News in Wilmington, Delaware,