UPDATE: Ameristar Lobs $2B-Plus Play for Aztar

PHOENIX-In an effort to top a bid made by Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., Ameristar Casinos Inc. is offering $42 per common share or $2.25 billion and will assume all debt for Aztar Corp. Ameristar’s bid not only tops the $2.1-billion, $38 per share offered by the Las Vegas-based Pinnacle in early March, but will require a contract termination to advance.

The proposed merger would make Ameristar the fifth largest publicly traded owner and operator of gaming properties in the US, with annual revenues of about $2 billion. If the deal ultimately is approved, Ameristar’s seven-property portfolio, totaling 1,193 hotel rooms and 449,000 sf, would expand to 12 properties with 774,000 sf and 5,757 rooms.

Of particular interest is the 61,000-sf Las Vegas Tropicana, a major Aztar property. Ameristar, also a Las Vegas-based operation, views the 34-acre tract as more compelling than the hotel-entertainment-gaming complex itself. “Tropicana Las Vegas would provide Ameristar with an outstanding development opportunity. There’s ample land there to pursue additional non-gaming opportunities as well,” Craig Neilsen, Ameristar’s chairman, president and CEO said this morning in a conference call to announce the offer.