LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The LINQ Promenade will soon be under new ownership.
On Tuesday, the company announced they have entered into an agreement to sell the LINQ Promenade to a joint venture to be formed between TPG Real Estate and the Investment Management Platform of Acadia Realty Trust for $275 million.
According to Caesars officials, the sale is subject to customary approvals and other closing conditions and is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2024.
"The sale of the LINQ Promenade represents an accretive, non-core asset sale that will accelerate our debt reduction goals," said Tom Reeg, CEO of Caesars Entertainment, Inc. "I want to thank all the team members and the tenants of the LINQ Promenade for their partnership over the last 10 years and wish them continued success."
The sale will not affect the LINQ hotel-casino or the High Roller, company officials said.
The company also announced that they have closed the sale of its intellectual property rights for the World Series of Poker brand to NSUS Group for $250 million in cash and a $250 million promissory note.
According to a press release, Caesars will retain the right from NSUS to host the flagship WSOP live tournament series at its Las Vegas casinos for the next 20 years and will receive a license from NSUS to continue operating its recently upgraded WSOP Online real-money poker business in Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania for the foreseeable future.
Brick-and-mortar poker rooms currently operated by Caesars will continue to feature WSOP branding and Caesars destinations will continue to enjoy preferential rights to host live WSOP Circuit events going forward.
During the company's earnings call on Tuesday, Caesars officials said the proceeds of both of these sales will go towards paying down debt.
"By the end of this year, we will have reduced debt by 25% in absolute numbers since we closed the Caesars transaction. That reduction remains our number one priority but we did execute the $140 million share buyback. We've got another $500 million authorized," Reeg said. "In terms of future asset sale activity, we have discussions around non-core assets that are ongoing but I would tell you that World Series and Promenade were the two easiest ones to execute on."
When investors asked if future sales in Las Vegas would be smaller properties and/or venues, Reeg said not necessarily.
"I'd just say they're more complex and [take] much longer to come together. In terms of chunkiness, we've got assets
that are, you're thinking about $275 million, which is the Promenade, to $500 million, which is the World Series Of Poker, I'd be thinking in terms of between those numbers. But again, complexity, timeline, and probability are different than the ones we've already executed."
He did clarify that Caesars Entertainment is not planning on selling any casinos on the Strip anytime soon.
"To be 100% clear, we have no asset sale processes of actual casinos, ongoing, as we speak," Reeg said. "If I break the year into the 90 days between these conference calls, the biggest change that I've seen in the last 90 days is the amount of incoming activity from people calling us up saying what do you think about this asset, what do you think about that asset. We are economic animals so if it ultimately makes sense that the best way to drive value is we transact, that's a possibility. But again, there's nothing active or ongoing."
Looking into 2025, Reeg said free cash flow should increase dramatically.
"We think we can continue to reduce debt and we can buy back stock responsibly and that's our plan as we move forward."
