Bankruptcy Judge A. Benjamin Goldgar yesterday approved the restructuring plan for Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s operating unit, paving the way for the operator of the Caesars Palace Las Vegas and other casinos to emerge from chapter 11 protection later this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Judge Goldgar yesterday confirmed the chapter 11 reorganization plan for Caesars Entertainment Operating Co.(CEOC) two years after the casino operator sought court protection. The plan, which will cut CEOC’s $18 billion debt load by about $10 billion, is the culmination of hard-fought negotiations among the company, its creditors, parent Caesars Entertainment and the parent’s private-equity backers — Apollo Global Management and TPG. At the heart of the plan is a settlement of CEOC and its creditors’ legal claims against parent Caesars and its private-equity backers related to a series of disputed asset transfers in the months leading up to CEOC’s Jan. 15, 2015, bankruptcy filing. In return for settling the claims, which an independent investigator said could be worth up to $5.1 billion, Caesars and its owners will contribute more than $5 billion to the CEOC financial restructuring.
