MOMO'S BREAKOUT BOARD

[norristhecat]

morning bt cats...trump this...Donald Trump Faces Bondholder Battle in Bid to Reclaim Casinos
Share | Email | Print | A A A

By Caroline Salas and Beth Jinks

Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. bondholders plan to reject Donald Trump’s attempt to take control of the bankrupt casino company because it would leave their securities worthless.

Bondholders, who are owed $1.25 billion, say Trump’s deal undervalues the company. Trump and an affiliate of Beal Bank Nevada agreed on Aug. 3 to invest $100 million in the company. Beal would extend the maturity on a $486 million loan until December 2020 from 2012.

“The plan proposed by Beal Bank and Donald Trump is not capable of confirmation for many reasons,” said Kristopher Hansen, co-head of the financial restructuring practice at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP in New York, who is representing bondholders. “The stories of Mr. Trump’s regaining control of the debtors are simply inaccurate,” Hansen said in an e-mailed statement.

Trump is attempting to retake control of the company he founded after the three casinos it owns in Atlantic City, New Jersey, wound up in bankruptcy protection a third time.

Any value above the Beal loan, which ranks first for repayment, should go to bondholders as equity, according to people familiar with the thinking of the bondholders. Shareholders would also get nothing under Trump’s offer, which requires court approval.

‘Too Low’

Bondholders are considering putting up additional money to help repay the loan to Beal Bank, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the creditors are still formulating their own plan. That amount may be between $50 million and $100 million and Trump would get no equity, one of the people said.

Trump’s plan puts “too low” a valuation on the company and we “suspect bond holders, who are second lien but are being offered nothing in this plan, will object,” Barbara Cappaert, an analyst at high-yield research firm KDP Investment Advisors Inc. in Montpelier, Vermont, wrote in a report yesterday. “This will likely delay an eventual reorganization for several more months.”

Atlantic City-based Trump Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Camden, New Jersey, on Feb. 17, days after Trump quit as chairman and said he was severing ties. At the time of the filing, the company listed assets of $2.06 billion and debt of $1.74 billion as of Dec. 31.

“The filing of a bankruptcy plan is standard in the restructuring process and signifies the start of a many months long process that guarantees no certain outcome,” Hansen said.

Tom Hickey, a Trump Entertainment spokesman, declined to comment beyond the Aug. 3 company statement.

Bondholders will “have a very hard time proving” the casino company is worth more than $500 million in court, Trump, 63, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Additional Capital

“They appointed most of the board of directors and this was already sent to the board,” Trump said. Bondholders have failed to reach their own agreement with the board, he said.

Additional capital from bondholders would be too expensive, and under any plan other than his own, Beal Bank may not let Trump Entertainment extend the maturity on the loan, Trump said.

In exchange for extending the credit line, Beal Bank would get an interest rate that is 5.75 percentage points more than the London interbank offered rate, Trump Entertainment said yesterday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s up from a spread over Libor of 3.2 percentage points previously, according to an earlier agreement.

Three-month Libor, a borrowing benchmark, was set at 0.47 percent yesterday.

‘Needs Leadership’

Bondholders “want to invest money with a large amount of interest on that money, and that doesn’t work,” Trump said. “These people have been running the company for the last three years. They put the board on, they hired everybody and look what happened. I haven’t been involved in management in a long time. This is a company that needs equity investment and needs leadership.”

Trump Entertainment’s $1.25 billion of 8.5 percent notes maturing in 2015 last traded at 12.25 cents on the dollar on July 23, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The securities traded as high as 103.375 cents as recently as June 2007.

Cappaert recommends investors “hold” the securities because “bondholders deserve and will earn a level of return consistent with current bond prices,” she said in the report.