The conglomerate company Icahn Enterprises L.P., which is owned by the activist investor Carl Icahn, posted an official announcement today, revealing that it has reached a deal with Hard Rock International-led group of investors to dispose of the Atlantic City-located former Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort.
The activist investor acquired the property only a year earlier, after Trump Entertainment Resorts announced bankruptcy. All casino and hotel operations of the Taj Mahal Resort were officially stopped in October last year, and at the beginning of February 2017 Icahn revealed that he was aimed at selling the property.
A sale price was not disclosed, but the buyers from Hard Rock International are expected to invest about $300 million in rebranding and renovating the property. As revealed in the official report of IEP, some customary closing conditions would be applied to the sale, but no special financing requirements would be applied. it
What is interesting, is the fact that Icahn Enterprises is selling only the Taj Mahal property, while the former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino located in Atlantic City would be excluded from the deal. It would remain in the hold of IEP, which plans to offer the Hotel and Casino for sale separately.
After the sale is finalised, the former Trump Taj Mahal is planned to be rebranded.
The Chairman of Icahn Enterprises Carl Icahn commented on the sale, saying that the shareholders at IEP were perfectly satisfied with the ownership of their Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City. Mr. Icahn explained that the company had plans to own only one running casino property on the territory of Atlantic City, so the sale of Taj Mahal was quite a fortunate outcome for them.
Earlier, Hard Rock has proposed to build a major casino resort that was planned to be located at the Meadowlands racetrack in the northern part of New Jersey. However a casino gambling referendum, which was carried out throughout the entire state, was rejected in November 2016. If successful, it would allow the casino gambling operators to expand their presence beyond Atlantic City, but now the issue is closed for a period of no less than two years.
Up to date, it still remains unclear whether the Hard Rock brand would seek to build a casino at Meadowlands racetrack after the acquisition of former Trump Taj Mahal is carried out.
- Author
Daniel Williams
