Caesars Entertainment selling Louisiana property
Caesars Entertainment Inc. is divesting a Louisiana property.
On Thursday, the Reno-based casino operating company announced that it had agreed to sell Harrah’s Louisiana Downs casino in Bossier City to Rubico Acquisition Corp. for $22 million.
The joint transaction also includes Vici Properties Inc., a real estate investment trust tied to Caesars that acts as a landlord to the property.
According to a news release, $5.5 million of the proceeds from the transaction will go to Vici and $16.5 million will go to Caesars. The annual base rent payments under the two companies’ regional master lease will not change.
After the deal closes, Caesars will operate 51 properties in 16 states. The sale is set to close by the end of the year or early 2021 and is subject to regulatory approvals.
Caesars is also expected to sell at least one Strip asset in the coming months.
Harrah’s Louisiana Downs is a “racino” — a property with both a casino and a racetrack — and has roughly 12,000 square feet of casino floor space, according to a 2019 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It was closed last week because of Hurricane Laura and has since reopened.
Caesars’ shares closed down 2.2 percent to $47.62 on the Nasdaq on Thursday, while the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 598.34 points, or 5 percent. Vici shares closed down 2.8 percent to $22.92 on the New York Stock Exchange.
A previous version of this story incorrectly reported the reason behind the sale.
Contact Bailey Schulz at bschulz@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0233. Follow @bailey_schulz on Twitter.
