The closely watched public offering of Harrah’s Entertainment, the huge but debt-laden casino chain, is not going as planned.
“It is fair to say we’re struggling to get to the finish line,” a source in the process told The Post yesterday.
Negotiations between the underwriters and potential investors in the heavily-indebted casino chain over the price of the offering have been hard, a second source close to the deal added.
This source added that it would still be premature to write an obituary for the deal.
If they can’t price Thursday, then the offering will be pulled, the first source said.
Harrah’s troubles in getting its IPO off the ground stand in stark contrast to the fate of General Motors, the once-hobbled carmaker that has seen interest in its offering swell — so much that it was able to raise its price, as it was oversold.
Leon Black’s Apollo Management and TPG Capital, the private-equity giants that bought Harrah’s nearly three years ago in a $28 billion leveraged buyout, this week have been trying to sell America’s biggest casino operator so they can bring their business public through underwriters Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Goldman.
Harrah’s investors have not yet gone through the process of “price discovery” to determine the best range at which the IPO should be floated to the public, the second source said.
To be sure, the Harrah’s IPO was never expected to be easy.
Operating over 50 casinos, the Paradise, Nev.-based company is losing money and has a staggering $23 billion in debt (most of the money borrowed to finance the 2008 LBO).
The catalyst for the filing is John Paulson, who in June 2010 injected $550 million into the struggling business and wants to register his shares, the first source said.
However, Harrah’s has a few years before Paulson can force an exit, the source added.
The private-equity firms are making the argument that Internet gambling will become legal within a year and Harrah’s, with its giant mailing list, will see profits soar.
IPO investors, though, have shown a recent reluctance to gamble on the recovery of heavily levered businesses. Plus, roughly 30 percent of the company’s revenue comes from Las Vegas, a city with not the brightest growth prospects.
In Macau or in other fast-growing Asian markets, Harrah’s doesn’t have a presence.
The parties will be meeting tonight and making a decision on price, at which point they will determine whether to go forward with the offering, sources said.
Plans are to build the book of orders on Nov. 18, and then determine price once the market closes.
In its filing, Harrah’s said it planned to sell 31.3 million shares at a price between $15 and $17 per share. So far appetite for the deal at best is at the lower end, which equates to $470 million.