Trump Casinos Post $443 Million Loss
Donald Wittkowski, Press of Atlantic City
ATLANTIC CITY - Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., currently in the midst of an ownership fight between Donald Trump and corporate bondholders, fell to a huge loss in the second quarter, reflecting the lower value of two of its three casinos.
The company reported a net loss of $443.1 million, or $13.97 per share, compared to a net loss of $29.8 million, or 94 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Net revenues for the quarter plunged nearly 16 percent to $195.1 million. Revenue declined from gaming and food and beverage operations, but there was an increase in hotel business, the company reported.
Trump Entertainment spokesman Tom Hickey said the quarterly loss was primarily the result of a $556.7 million writedown of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and Trump Marina Hotel Casino. The writedown is an accounting procedure that reflects the lower value of the slumping casinos in today's market.
The quarterly results, disclosed in a federal securities filing Monday evening, were more bad news for a company that is trying to restructure a crushing $1.7 billion debt load in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Trump Entertainment announced last week that it plans to slash its debt to $486 million under a buyout offer from Donald Trump and his financial backer, an affiliate of Dallas-based Beal Bank. Trump and Beal Bank would buy the company out of bankruptcy for $100 million.
However, Trump Entertainment bondholders are gearing up for a bankruptcy court fight after their competing buyout plan was rejected by the company.
Bondholders and Donald Trump have clashed ever since they spurned his earlier buyout proposal in February. He resigned then from the Trump Entertainment board of directors, but has launched a comeback to regain ownership of the casinos and take them private.
In a separate bankruptcy battle, Trump Entertainment is fighting with the New York gaming group Coastal Marina LLC over the aborted $270 million sale of Trump Marina.
Coastal filed a complaint in U.S. Bankruptcy Court two weeks ago alleging that Trump Entertainment allowed Trump Marina to become so deteriorated that it was impossible to secure financing to complete the sale. Trump Entertainment denied the accusations, claiming that Coastal violated terms of the deal.
