March 2, 2017

Billionaire bails out on Trump's "Eighth Wonder of the World"

Independent, UK - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has reached a deal to sell the shuttered Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City to Hard Rock International and two New Jersey investors.

The sale comes four months after Icahn closed it amid a crippling strike.

A sale price was not revealed.

Icahn, who also owns Atlantic City's Tropicana Casino and Resort, said he decided one casino in town is enough. He said in January he had lost about $300 million owning the Taj Mahal, and would be delighted if he could sell it for half that amount.

President Trump, who at the time was a Manhattan real estate mogul, dubbed the Taj Mahal “the eighth wonder of the world” when it opened in 1990. But within a year it was in bankruptcy, the victim of unsustainably high levels of debt taken on during its construction.

Trump cut most of his ties with Atlantic City in 2009, stepping down from the company he once ran, Trump Entertainment Resorts, most of which was then controlled by bondholders who swapped their debt for equity in the company during bankruptcy. Trump retained only a 10 percent stake in the company in return for the right to use his name, but that was wiped out last year when Icahn acquired the company from its latest Chapter 11 filing.

No comments: