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ATLANTIC CITY - Donald Trump is attempting to regain control of the casino company that still bears his name but no longer has him as the boss.

The loquacious Trump has been unusually quiet since his resignation as chairman of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. in February in a dispute with corporate bondholders. However, newly filed bankruptcy documents show he has teamed up with a bank to make an offer for the company.

Buried deep in a list of bankruptcy bills are brief entries indicating that "DJT" - Trump's initials - and Beal Bank have proposed a deal that is under review by the company's financial and legal advisers. Trump declined to comment Friday.

Newark attorney Charles A. Stanziale Jr., bankruptcy counsel for Trump Entertainment, confirmed Friday that a confidential offer from Trump and Beal Bank will be considered by the company's board of directors.

Bondholders who own $1.25 billion in Trump Entertainment notes have made a competing confidential offer, Stanziale added.

Donald Trump and bondholders have been on bad terms since they spurned his offer in February to buy the publicly traded company and take it private. Now they are fighting again in bankruptcy court. At stake is ownership of the three Trump Entertainment casinos in Atlantic City.

"The board will look at both proposals and determine whether it is satisfied that the offers meet the needs of the company," Stanziale said.

Stanziale also raised the possibility that a third party could bid for the company or that Trump Entertainment's management could craft its own plan for new ownership. He stressed that the board of directors has not yet committed to any plan this early in the game.

"Are the plans being reviewed by the company's financial consultant, management and legal counsel? The answer to that is yes," Stanziale said. "Has the board acted on any of these plans? No. Has there been a recommendation on either one? The answer is no."

Trump Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Feb. 17 in hopes of restructuring $1.7 billion of suffocating debt made worse by the company's declining business in the recession. Four days before the bankruptcy filing, Donald Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump resigned from the company's board of directors.

Angered that his offer to take the company private was rejected by bondholders, Trump quit as chairman and announced he was no longer associated with the casino operations. Privately, though, he has been maneuvering to get back into the casino business.

Bankruptcy documents also refer to the Trump-Beal team as the "Trump family," suggesting that Ivanka Trump is part of the proposed deal, too. She serves as her father's board room sidekick in his NBC reality show "The Apprentice" and also represented him at a bankruptcy hearing in March.

Trump's financial backer, Beal Bank, is headed by Andy Beal, a Trump friend. Beal Bank is one of Trump Entertainment's lead creditors. In December 2007, the company received a $500 million loan from Beal Bank Nevada, an affiliate of the Dallas-based bank. Beal is currently owed $493 million on its loan, Stanziale said.

Beal Bank came to Trump's rescue during another bout with bankruptcy in 2005. At that time, the bank supplied a $100 million loan that allowed the casino operator to continue paying its bills while simultaneously working on a plan to pull itself out of bankruptcy protection. Trump emerged from Chapter 11 in May 2005, only to fall back into bankruptcy four years later.

Trump Entertainment is asking for a 90-day extension of its exclusive rights to submit a reorganization plan in its current bankruptcy case. The company faces a June 17 deadline to file the plan but wants the court to push back the date to Sept. 15 to give it more time to negotiate a deal. A bankruptcy judge is scheduled to rule on the request June 16.

E-mail Donald Wittkowski:

DWittkowski@pressofac.com

7 comments:

• myself (1) posts 10:29 am

  You all are jealous, Uncle Donald knows his stuff.

• pawins (7) posts 8:51 am

  The megaresorts have megadebt and minirevenue. They'll go under too. Their revenue was projected to grow infinitely to support the crushing debt. Good Luck. You'll get more corporate raiders and other parasites sucking any remaining value from the properties while they fold. Harrah's will be lucky to make the year. Does this also mean slots at the AC Racetrack? That will help a lot, one less toll. One less toll. That's the only people I could see expanding slots in AC. How could they give slots to the meadowlands and freehold and shut them out?

• PennsylvaniaSucks (91) posts 8:01 pm

  LOL... was I even talking about long-term solution? No. I wasn't. Go back and re-read my comment again smart alec. However, since you bring it up, a long term solution that I see coming is a compromise will happen between the casinos and the racing industry. Slots and casinos at the Meadowlands and the race tracks. Revenue will be shared with A.C. casinos. Business will drop 50% at Bethlehem Sands (hahahaha) because the Meadowlands will steal the New York/North Jersey business. The smaller, insufficient casinos in A.C. will close, while the megaresorts fair well with overnight guests. PA will soon have table games for sure. Everybody wins... NJ, AC, PA, DE.

• Jamesy (65) posts 7:10 pm

  re: Pennsylvania sucks...just weekends will last for the summer...and that is not the long term answer genius...there isn't a casino in the world that can survive on just weekends...your statement is moronic at best!

• PennsylvaniaSucks (91) posts 11:16 am

  The revenues may be down at the casinos in A.C., but they still remained packed on the weekends. When was the last time you were even here?

• Nikynewark (66) posts 8:52 am

  Amazing to me anyone even goes to AC when the words "bankrupt, bankruptcy, declining business and recession" are used to describe conditions. In the NY/north Jersey population center (16,000,000+) there are well produced radio and tv ads constantly for Sands Bethlehem, Mt Airy, Yonkers, Foxwoods and Mohegan, but nothing for AC. From where I sit AC has rolled over and is waiting for the death blow from Foxwoods Philly and Maryland slots. With sports betting already in Delaware AC would be trying to catch up (if it ever comes) a game they don't play very well.

• Jamesy (65) posts 8:50 am

  Donny Chump the scammer!...always trying to weasel his way out of paying his bills...everyone nationwide knows about his way of doing business...he is the laughing stock among his peers. He wants back in as owner because he misses scimming off the top of the cash flow...he can't do that anymore and that hurts...Donny J Chump is worth nothing! He's nothing but a fraud moving money to pay Paul...and its caught up to him...Chump is finished in more ways than one.

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