Eldorado Resorts (NASDAQ:ERI) has an agreement to merge with Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) in a deal valuing Caesars at about $18Bincluding debt, Reuters reports.
That values Caesars about $13/share, the price Caesars was demanding when it started its auction. Caesars reportedly rejected deals earlier this month at $10.50/share. CZR closed Friday at $9.99.
And it comes after reports that Carl Icahn looked more eager to sell than Caesars' board, and worked to stake out middle ground on the deal.
The deal's expected to be announced tomorrow, according to Reuters. Ownership would be split roughly between shareholders of each company
ERI: Another Way ERI Could Double: BuyCZRIn a June note, we outlined an investment case for $108 per share not requiringadditional acquisition announcements. Below, we argue a separate investmentcase for $104 to $116 per share should ERI purchase Caesar's (CZR-NC)under a reasonable valuation scenario. We do not pretend to know if ERI andCZR are in any deep merger discussions, though the universe of buyers islimited and ERI is best suited to extract full value from CZR assets, in our view.Calculation. Variables of our case for $104 to $116 per share include: a CZR$12 per share base case purchase price or ~$9b utilizing 75% cash and 25%ERI stock consideration (we demonstrate purchase price sensitivity on thefollowing page); $600mm in EBITDA synergies; ~$1.2b of executed lease backcall options from VICI and $5.3b in new debt issuance and; targeted metricmultiples. We also touch on why ERI is likely best suited to maximize CZR
$ERI CEO-Tom Reeg On "CNBC" Tuesday Supremely Confident in $500MM of Savings Combined player database will have: 62MM Gamblers Paying Down => $4-$5 Billion in Debt Within 2 years after CZR deal closes Drives Leverage => Below 3.0X times cnb.cx/2r6KSIm