Caesars stock jumps on word of revived negotiations with bankers

Casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp (CEC) saw its shares jump nearly 17% on Friday, an upbeat end to an otherwise downer week.

Investors pushed CEC shares up $1.15 to $8.02 on Friday, even as the overall market lost 3% of its value. Investors were buoyed by news that CEC has restarted negotiations with its main bank lenders regarding its plan to restructure its bankrupt main unit Caesars Entertainment Operating Co (CEOC).

On Monday, CEC filed an update with the Securities and Exchange Commission announcing that talks with its senior bank lenders had broken off the day before. Unlike the majority of CEOC’s senior bond holders and a minority of its junior creditors, CEC has been unable to convince the bankers to sign off on its restructuring plan, which would see CEOC split into two divisions: one to operate its casinos and another to own the land on which those casinos stand.

On Friday, Bloomberg News reported that CEC had restarted talks with the bankers, who hold around $3b of CEOC’s $5.35b in term loans. But the bankers are still balking at being paid off in new debt belonging to the restructured CEOC and they also want CEC to double the $62.5m upfront cash payment it had previously offered as an incentive for signing on with the restructuring plan.