Eldorado is rumoured to be considering the sale of some properties within the Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip, after the merger between the two rival companies is finalized later this year.
Sales Of Assets
The $17.3 billion acquisition of Caesars Entertainment by its rival in the casino and hospitality industry, Reno-based Eldorado Resorts, was initially announce in June 2019, and even before the necessary regulatory approvals from the all 17 state regulators where both companies have operations were received, Eldorado started trimming assets of its own, with the areas of potential overlap being in the focus of the sales.
Las Vegas Strip
A recently published report implies that Eldorado Resorts management are mulling over the possibility of selling some Caesars Las Vegas properties, with the Colosseum at Caesars Palace and Caesars Forum specifically being mentioned in the article.
While the report does not go into details as to who will be the buyer of the Colosseum, another Nevada-based company, Las Vegas Sands, is the one mentioned to have interest in buying the $300 million, 550,000-square-foot meeting and conference center that is still to open doors in the spring of 2020.
With no confirmation of either the properties being considered for sale, or the potential interest of the aforementioned buyer, the purchase of the Forum by Las Vegas Sands would make perfect sense from the company’s point of view, as it has established a name as a Meetings, Incentives, Convention, and Exhibition /MICE/-based integrated resorts operator.
Caesars Forum
Caesars Forum consists of the two largest pillarless ballrooms in the world and more than 30,000 square feet of flexible space, a wide variety of restaurants and entertainment venues, and with all these located right in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip and within walking distance of more than 20,000 rooms, and adding it to the its property’s list would present a huge opportunity for Las Vegas Sands to bolster its meeting space and improve profits from Sin City operations.
State Regulatory Approvals Process Continues
Earlier this week, the Mississippi Gaming Commission gave its approval for the merger deal that would create the largest casino operator in the US to go ahead, after initially the regulator’s approval in Missouri in late 2019, was followed by gaming regulatory bodies in Lousiana, Pennsylvania and Illinois that gave the green light in January, and Iowa being the state to approve the mega deal in February.
Besides the approvals from all states the two merging companies have operations, a final approval from the Federal Trade Commission is also needed.