Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. Monday failed to persuade a bankruptcy judge to sign off on an agreement with Carl Icahn that would have allowed the beleaguered gambling company to use its scarce cash as it attempts to survive in chapter 11, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The ruling from Judge Kevin Gross sent the company and Icahn into renewed talks about what it will take to keep the money flowing at the Atlantic City operation, and its only remaining casino, the Trump Taj Mahal on the boardwalk, open. As secured lender, Icahn has the power to refuse Trump Entertainment access to the cash it needs to mount a turnaround effort. Judge Gross sided with unsecured creditors who said that it is too soon, less than a month into the bankruptcy, to cement terms that would tie the hands of low-ranking creditors in a chapter 11 proceeding that offers them little or nothing. (Subscription required.)
http://online.wsj.com/articles/judge-rejects-trump-entertainment-deal-w…
In related news, the union representing workers of the bankrupt Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. plans to block an Atlantic City street two days from now to protest management requests to give up their pension and health care plans, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Unite Here, which represents 270,000 workers nationally, met with Trump representatives twice last week and has been unable to come to terms, Bob McDevitt, president of the union’s Local 54, said in an e-mailed statement. Another meeting is scheduled for this week. Trump Entertainment, the casino operator founded by Donald Trump, declared bankruptcy last month in the wake of continued declines in gambling in New Jersey. The company owns the shuttered Trump Plaza hotel and its Trump Taj Mahal may close next month.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-10-06/trump-casino-union-to-bl…