Caesars Entertainment Operating Company – the operating arm of Caesar’s Entertainment Corp (CEC)., finally resolved their lender disputes Friday, leaving the door open for the long-awaited plan to save the company from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Namely, according to a filing from the Bankruptcy Court in Chicago, an agreement has finally been reached between the lenders, allowing for the restructuring plan to continue without further opposition.
Caesars operating arm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection back in January 2015 after a debt restructuring effort from its parent company, which some creditors claimed to have involved CEC’s looting of a number of its Las Vegas assets. The claims lead to lawsuit threats and a number of troublesome negotiations about a restructuring plan to bail out the operating arm from bankruptcy which, according to lender-set deadlines, had to be agreed upon before December 24th.
The threat from the group of lenders, which includes GSO Capital Partners from the Blackstone Group LP, came after a failure from Caesar’s side to submit documents that will ensure the creditors of the market value of assets that will remain post Caesar’s Operating Company’s split into two fractions as part of the recovery plan. But now that the support has been gained, the company will proceed into its January confirmation trial that would make its exit from the two-year bankruptcy official. Should the plan have failed, CEC was at a risk of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection themselves.
But even though the company reached a deal, there’s still some danger lurking for the operator, as the U.S. Trustee has threatened to appeal to a higher authority should the Bankruptcy Court approve the exit, due to an alleged evasion of $5.1 billion in damage repayments from Caesar’s private equity sponsors TPG Capital Management and Apollo Global Management that the deal provides immunity for.