Caesars Entertainment emerges from bankruptcy with $2 billion in cash

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Caesars Palace celebrates its 50th anniversary with a pool party birthday celebration at the Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis on Friday, Aug. 5, 2016.

Fri, Oct 6, 2017 (2:52 p.m.)

Caesars Entertainment has completed the bankruptcy process, the company announced Friday, ending two-plus years of legal and financial uncertainty.

As part of the post-bankruptcy restructuring, Caesars Entertainment has finished its merger with Caesars Acquisition Company and has announced a new board of directors.

In addition, as part of the reorganizaton, the new company has sold almost all of its physical casinos and the land on which they in the U.S. to a real estate investment trust, VICI Properties, Inc.

VICI is owned by some of Caesars’ former creditors who will in turn rent the properties back to Caesars, which will still own and operate the gaming operations.

The cloud of bankruptcy has limited what the company could do over the last few years. As a result, it has focused on renovating many of the rooms at its various properties as well as some convention and meeting space.

In the end of bankruptcy announcement, however, the company said it’s emerging with $2 billion in cash and plans to expand.

That growth could take place on land Caesar’s owns in Las Vegas along Koval Lane or even in front of Caesars Palace itself.

Caesars executives spoke about those plans during the company’s first-quarter earnings call earlier this year:

“We have sizable land holdings on the east side of approximately 80 to 90 acres,” Caesars CFO Eric Hession said at the time. “And then we own about 7 acres of undeveloped land in front of Caesars Palace, all of which would be prime for potential developments from additional convention space to retail to other offerings that our customers would desire.”

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