Boyd Wants Competing Plans for Station Casinos

LAS VEGAS-Boyd Gaming Corp. wants the judge overseeing the Ch. 11 bankruptcy of Station Casinos to allow competing reorganization plans to be considered by an independent examiner. Boyd, which owns six suburban casinos and three Downtown casinos in the region as well as the stalled Echelon resort development on the Las Vegas Strip, has been trying since February to purchase some of all of the assets of Station Casinos, which operates 18 locals casinos in the region. Station filed for bankruptcy protection in July.

In early September, some of Station Casinos’ minority lenders filed a motion to have an independent examiner appointed to investigate the decisions being made by Station management and its main lender, Deutsche Bank, due to alleged conflicts of interest. Station objected to the motion toward the end of the month, denying any conflict of interest and calling the motion an “unfortunate and ill-considered” distraction by “admittedly over-secured” lenders meant to bolster their negotiating position, and in early October Station filed a motion seeking an extension of its exclusivity period, a 120-day window during which only it can file a reorganization plan.

In its filing Sunday, Boyd Gaming said any such an extension should be subject to conditions that would allow competing plans to be developed during the time and ultimately considered at the end of the exclusivity period. “At the end of the process chosen by the debtors, any proposal by the debtors should be tested against alternatives, such as sales, that may be superior and in the best interest of creditors as a whole,” Boyd states in its filing. “Since the debtors have shown little interest in developing alternatives with potential buyers like Boyd, an examiner appears to be the logical intermediary between the reluctant debtors and motivated buyers.”