U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Benjamin Goldgar has given Caesars Entertainment Operating Company (CEOC) one additional month in which to file its restructuring plan with the court. The operator had requested an additional six months past the original May 15 deadline to submit a formal restructuring plan that incorporates an agreement reached between CEOC and first-lien creditors.
CEOC, the largest unit of Caesars Entertainment, filed a voluntary bankruptcy petition in Chicago on January 15, a few days after a group of lower-level bondholders filed a petition in Delaware to force the parent company into an involuntary bankruptcy. Those creditors are the same who have filed two lawsuits claiming the operator’s restructuring plan pays back most of the investment of the senior-level creditors at the expense of the debt the company owes them.
Caesars attorneys had cited the complexity of the case and the challenges against it from a court-sanctioned committee representing the lower-level creditors in asking that its deadline for filing a restructuring plan be extended to November 15. Goldgar gave the company until June 15. The plan negotiated with senior creditors over four months would reduce CEOC’s debt from $18 billion to around $8 billion.
Meanwhile, investigations are beginning by the court-sanctioned panel into whether Caesars Entertainment’s private-equity owners, Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital, illegally transferred key assets like Planet Hollywood and Horseshoe Baltimore from CEOC into a real-estate investment fund prior to the bankruptcy filing.
Goldgar said last week that he will deny a request from company attorneys to limit creditor investigations, opening the door to multiple investigations into Caesars’ asset transfers prior to its bankruptcy filing. Goldgar even said he expected a “free-for-all” of creditor investigations by two creditor committees and examiner Richard J. Davis.
