Caesars Entertainment has updated its initial offer to junior bondholders for another $1.6 billion. With the latest addition to the initial $4 billion, the offer goes over $5 billion; it is, however, valid only until Friday.
The amount is over the $5.1 billion an independent examiner claimed the parent may be liable for in case the creditors turned out victorious in their New York and Delaware lawsuits.
The Wednesday offer was presented to junior creditors of Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., which is the main unit of the company that back in January 2015 filed for bankruptcy protection. Their decision was justified with the citing of a $18.4 billion debt.
As was revealed, the largest share of the $1.6 billion comes from hedge fund owners TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management. Both have accepted giving up their equity in the operator; however, in exchange, they would be released from liability regarding creditor’s lawsuits.
Additionally, around $100 million from the extra offer comes from Caesars officers and directors. This comes after US Bankruptcy Judge William Goldgar last week gave green light to creditors to take a look at personal finances of directors and hedge fund owners; the reason for this decision was being able to calculate how much they could contribute to the restructuring of CEOC.
When the offer of $1.6 billion was made on Wednesday, David Seligman, CEOC’s attorney stated in the bankruptcy court of Illinois that the “best and final” offer would be on the table until Friday.
It remains to be seen what the creditors’ answer to the offer would be considering the fact that they claimed in court that Caesars owes them $12.6 billion.
The bondholders filed the lawsuits after they accused the company and hedge funds of illegally shifting profitable assets out of the unit in question into other units. Moreover, they have claimed that the parent was reneging on guarantees to honour the debts of CEOC.