Eldorado selling two casinos in Missouri and Mississippi to Twin River for $230 M

Eldorado is selling Isle of Capri Casino Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri and Lady Luck Casino Vicksburg in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Combined, Eldorado and Caesars own some 60 properties in 16 states.

Last month, Eldorado CEO Thomas Reeg said the company would sell casinos in markets where federal antitrust concerns could be raised. Eldorado and Caesars both operate casinos in Missouri and Mississippi.

A week before the Caesars transaction was announced, Eldorado said it was selling three of the company’s regional casinos – two in Missouri and one in West Virginia – for $385 million to real estate investment trust VICI Properties and Century Casinos.

“The deal is modestly deleveraging and another step towards removing potential overhangs from regulatory review for the Caesars transaction as it, in our view, eliminates any potential issues from regulators pertaining to Kansas City market exposures,” Deutsche Bank gaming analyst Carlo Santarelli said in a note to investors Thursday morning.

Rhode Island-based Twin River currently owns four casinos: Twin River and Tiverton casinos in Rhode Island, Hard Rock Biloxi in Mississippi, Dover Downs in Delaware and Arapahoe Park racetrack in Colorado. The company has a pending deal in place to acquire three Colorado casinos owned by Affinity Gaming.

“This transaction continues our focus on creating long-term shareholder value as we strive to develop or acquire assets which we believe will prove accretive to our earnings,” Twin River CEO George Papanier said in a statement.

Stifel gaming analyst Brad Boyer said the transaction shows the investment community Twin River is “serious about and capable of deploying its excess capital to grow through acquisition.” Boyer added the non-cash nature of the deal “reinforces just how much excess liquidity Twin River has at its disposal at this point.”

In Thursday’s brief announcement, Reno-based Eldorado said proceeds from the sale to Twin River would be used for “general corporate purposes,” including the Caesars transaction.

“The announcement is consistent with our expectation that Eldorado will divest assets where there is geographic concentration in combination with Caesars or those which require capital investment,” Jefferies gaming analyst David Katz told investors.

When all the current deals plus the Caesars transactions are closed, Eldorado will have four casinos in Mississippi and three casinos in Missouri. The Eldorado-Twin River transaction is expected to close in early 2020.