Harrah's Caesars IPO Dies... The Ides of Nothing

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: November 19, 2010 7:52 am

Last Updated: April 27, 2020 10:46 pm

Do we need another public casino chain? It must be that we do not. Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. has dropped its plan to come public “due to market conditions.” The private equity-owned casino and hotel operator, which was going to be listed as Caesars Entertainment Corp. and under the ticker “CZR,” will have to stay private for now.

We had heard that the interest was low on this one. The problem that we saw when we looked at the deal was not actually market conditions. The issue is that the IPO was meant to give some liquidity to the private equity group after the casino and hotel was taken private in a very over-valued leveraged buyout.

The IPO was set to be 31.25 million shares of common stock with a target range of $15 to $17 per share.

Perhaps the owners will have to consider a break-up or more of a partial exit via sales, assuming there are takers.

It turns out that having billions doesn’t necessarily buy any more smarts than the rest of the population.

“Et tu, Brute?”

JON C. OGG

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