Caesars delays plans to sell one of its Vegas Strip casinos

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Casino giant Caesars Entertainment Inc. is postponing plans to sell one of its eight Las Vegas Strip resorts until the market further rebounds from the coronavirus pandemic, perhaps next year, the Las Vegas Sun reports.

Caesars officials have said since the company's merger with Eldorado Resorts that they plan to sell a Strip asset.

'œWe remain convinced that it does not make sense for us to market an asset until we can market it off the cash flow that we're doing with it, not off a bridge to what we think we can do with it,'ť Caesars CEO Tom Reeg said. He said it's possible a sale could happen in 2022.

A potential buyer, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, looked at a Strip property before coming to terms on a $650 million deal announced Monday to buy the Palms, according to its CEO, Laurens Vosloo. Vosloo declined to say which Strip property the band was considering.

Caesars posted a net loss of $423 million for the first quarter of the year after collecting $1.7 billion in net revenues for the three months that ended March 31. The company recorded a net loss of $173 million during the first quarter of 2020.

In the Las Vegas market, its revenues were down just over 39% year-over-year, from $822 million during the first quarter of 2020 to $497 million during the opening quarter of this year.

Caesars officials said they expect business in Las Vegas will continue to improve as the year goes on.

'œThe numbers don't tell the story this quarter,'ť Reeg said. 'œWe had Illinois and Pennsylvania still closed when we started the quarter. In Nevada, we didn't have the state open to 50% until two weeks were left in the quarter, so we saw demand build through the quarter.'ť

Carlo Santarelli, an analyst with Deutsche Bank, called the tone of the call 'œbullish,'ť adding that he has Caesars stock squarely in the 'œbuy'ť category in a memo following the earnings call.