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Cordish Co. reportedly eyes Trump sites
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Stocks in the casino company headed by Donald Trump soared Friday after a report that a Baltimore real estate developer is considering buying one or more of the company's properties.
Citing three anonymous sources, The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., reported in Friday's editions that the Cordish Co., which owns "The Walk," a $110 million retail shopping project at the foot of the Atlantic City Expressway, just outside Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, has been in talks with Trump Entertainment Resorts to take over some of Trump's Atlantic City, N.J., properties..
Shares in Trump Entertainment Resorts jumped to $8.13 — an increase of $1.14, or more than 14 percent — in trading Friday afternoon.
Cordish Co. also owns Baltimore’s Power Plant Live entertainment complex, along with other properties.
Ryan Worst, who follows the company for Brean Murray, Carret & Co., wrote in a client note that the market has been underestimating the value of the Trump casinos — especially the Taj Mahal, where there is room to build three new hotel towers. Worst said the sale of that one property could pay off most of Trump's debt.
Tom Hickey, a spokesman for Trump Entertainment Resorts would not comment on the sales talk reports, saying the company doesn't comment on "such rumors."
But he said that if there are offers for Trump properties, the company would listen: "We have always and we always fully evaluate any strategic alternative that presents itself."
David Cordish, president of Cordish Co., did not return The Examiner’s telephone calls seeing comment.
Trump Entertainment Resorts has been looking for a buyer ever since it turned down an offer from a group led by former casino executive Dennis Gomes in July, causing shares of the company to plummet.
Donald Trump told The Associated Press last week that there are "several" parties interested in buying all or part of the company, but he would not identify them.
Part of the difficulty in selling the casinos is the crippling $1.5 billion debt they carry, even after a 2005 Chapter 11 reorganization.
Donald Trump also has veto power over the sale of any of the casinos. If he waives that right, the company would have to pay up to $100 million to cover taxes he would owe in a sale.
