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Caesars Entertainment Corp. named former Hertz Global Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Frissora as its new CEO to succeed Gary Loveman, three weeks after the casino company put its biggest unit in bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Frissora, who left the car-rental agency in September, will join the company immediately as CEO-designate, become a member of the board and take over as CEO on July 1. Loveman will end his term as CEO on June 30 and remain chairman. Loveman said it was his decision to step down. He is credited with expanding the company’s Total Rewards loyalty program, now widely copied in the industry, and establishing Caesars’ online gaming business. Loveman failed to gain access for Caesars in Macau, now the world’s biggest gambling market, and oversaw the $30.7 billion buyout of the company in 2008, as the industry entered its worst slump in history.

Creditors of Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. are gathering in Chicago to jockey for spots on a court-sponsored panel that will determine whether the bankrupt casino company must contend with a loyal opposition or its most intractable foes as it tries to cut billions of dollars in debt, Bloomberg News reported today. In cases of this size, the U.S. Trustee’s Office appoints an official committee to look out for the interests of unsecured creditors including suppliers, pensioners and low-ranking bondholders. That process is scheduled to begin Wednesday. Caesars’ main operating unit filed for bankruptcy protection Jan. 15 in Chicago, weighed down by debt taken on when Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital took the company private in 2008 for $30.7 billion.

New Jersey's shuttered Revel Casino yesterday asked a federal judge to lift a stay on its pending sale to a Florida investor, arguing in a filing that creditors will be harmed if the deal does not go through soon, Reuters reported yesterday. IDEA Boardwalk LLC, which operated a bar and a nightclub at Revel — one of four Atlantic City casinos that closed down last year — has sued to block the sale, saying that it will lose $16 million in investments under the deal. On Friday, U.S. Circuit Court Judge Thomas Ambro ordered the sale delayed while he studies legal challenges. Revel Casino said in its filing yesterday that the deal must close by Feb. 9 or it could collapse. That would be "catastrophic," the filing said, because it would destroy $100 million of creditor value, based on the sale price plus additional costs to liquidate assets.

Revel AC Inc., the bankrupt Atlantic City, New Jersey, casino owner, asked a judge to penalize its power provider for planning to cut off electricity on Feb. 5, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Revel said in court papers yesterday that it received a letter from ACR Energy Partners LLC over the weekend announcing its plan to terminate service, which the casino company called a violation of the Bankruptcy Code’s automatic stay. ACR Energy should be fined $10 million for shutting off the power, plus $1 million a day until the juice is restored, Revel said in the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, N.J.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. supports demands by creditors for an independent examiner to review recent deals by the casino company's bankrupt operating unit, Reuters reported yesterday. Caesars' operating unit plans to cut its debt to $8.6 billion from $18.4 billion. The operator of 38 casinos has blamed a saturated U.S. gambling market and sluggish economic recovery for its financial problems. Creditors led by the Appaloosa Management hedge fund have said that Caesars "plundered" billions of dollars in choice assets from the operating unit, including Planet Hollywood and The Linq in Las Vegas. The creditors asked for the appointment of an examiner to investigate the operating company's deals dating back to 2010. The parent company said in a filing with Chicago's U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Sunday that an examiner would confirm the property transfers were fair and provided billions of dollars in cash to the operating unit.

With an outstanding debt of more than $6.2 million, Albuquerque, N.M.-based Flying Star Cafe filed for chapter 11 protection and closed two of its restaurants on Friday, the Albuquerque Journal reported on Saturday. Underperforming restaurants in Bernalillo and Santa Fe forced the move, said Jean Bernstein, co-owner of the 28-year-old company, and both were shut down on Friday. Flying Star will continue operating as a debtor in possession of its business under a chapter 11, through which it will attempt to negotiate with its creditors to pay off the outstanding debt. Those plans have the support of St. Louis, Mo.-based US Bank, according to court documents. US Bank is the company’s only creditor with claims secured by cash collateral.

At a Thursday protest, union employees from Atlantic City, N.J.’s Trump Taj Mahal had an angry message to deliver to billionaire Carl Icahn, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, and now, the employees have their answer. In a letter posted to his website, the activist investor argues that he’s “not fighting against the employees” of the Taj Mahal, who had their medical and pension benefits cut as part of the beleaguered casino’s bankruptcy. Instead, Icahn says, “I am fighting for those employees — fighting to save their jobs in the midst of a wholly unstable crisis.” Icahn, who, as the largest secured lender to the Taj Mahal, control’s the casino’s fate, blames the “catastrophic circumstances” facing Atlantic City for the cuts employees have faced. He also details at length why the union’s health care plan had to be cut, and why he believes providing health plans under the Affordable Care Act or Medicaid are an adequate solution.

A U.S. federal appeals court has delayed the sale of the shuttered Revel Casino in Atlantic City pending an appeal by a company that ran its nightclub and boardwalk dance club, Reuters reported on Saturday. The order, issued late on Friday by Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Court Judge Thomas Ambro, gives attorneys for Revel until Tuesday to respond to the appeal filed by IDEA Boardwalk, Llc. The company, along with several restaurants which had also leased space inside the casino, had lost a challenge to the sale in a Jan. 21 federal court. The sale to Florida developer Glen Straub, who bought Revel in bankruptcy court for $95.4 million, was expected to be completed by Feb. 7. The nightclub appealed that order, claiming the sale could cost it some $16 million it had invested to build bars, bathrooms and sound systems as part of its 25-year lease.

Bankruptcy Judge Gloria Burns yesterday said that she will approve a deal that allows bankrupt Revel Casino Hotel to pay far less in property taxes to Atlantic City this year, Reuters reported yesterday. The cash-strapped city agreed to lower its 2015 valuation of Revel, the city's newest casino property. Revel opened in 2012 to much fanfare but has never turned a profit, went bankrupt twice and closed last year. Under the agreement, Revel's 2015 tax assessment is just $225 million, less than a tenth of the $2.4 billion it cost to build. Over the course of negotiations in bankruptcy court, the 2015 assessed value of the property dropped to $1.15 billion and then $625 million before the latest agreement was reached. At the current tax rate of 3.348 percent, Revel's next quarterly property tax payment will be about $1.9 million, down from the $9.8 million it would have been prior to the settlement. The city's 2015 tax rate has yet to be determined.

A federal judge in Delaware approved $20 million in new bankruptcy financing yesterday for Trump Entertainment Resorts from billionaire investor Carl Icahn as the company continues to work to keep the struggling Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J., open, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross approved the debtor-in-possession financing Wednesday over the objection of the company's unsecured creditors committee, which argued that it came with too many strings and would give Icahn more control over Trump Entertainment's fate than he already has. Icahn is Trump's senior secured lender and is owed more than $285 million plus outstanding interest on its collateralized debt. The company's restructuring plan calls for Icahn to exchange his secured debt for 100 percent of the stock in the reorganized company. In addition to approving the financing, Judge Gross approved the disclosure statement explaining Trump Entertainment's reorganization plan and gave permission for the company to begin soliciting votes on the plan from creditors.