Operator News
US – Century Casinos completes Nugget deal in Reno
By Phil - 3 April 2022
Century Casinos has completed the acquisition of 50 per cent of the membership interests in Smooth Bourbon from Marnell Gaming for $95m.
PropCo owns the land and building underlying the Nugget Casino Resort and has entered into a lease with Nugget Sparks, which operates the Nugget Casino Resort, for an annual rent of $15m. The Company will receive $1.9m per quarter (before any expenses pursuant to the lease) for its share of the rent from OpCo.
The company entered into a Membership Interest Purchase Agreement with the Seller in February 2022 to acquire the PropCo membership interests and to purchase 100 per cent of the membership interests in OpCo for an additional $100m. The purchase of OpCo is expected to occur within one year and is subject to approval by the Nevada Gaming Commission. Following the Second Closing, the company will own the operating assets of the Casino and 50 per cent of the membership interests in PropCo. The company also has a five-year option to acquire the remaining 50 per cent of the membership interests in PropCo for $105m plus two per cent per annum.
The company financed the Acquisition with a new credit facility that was issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA on the closing date. The credit facility also refinanced the company’s existing debt and will finance the OpCo purchase on the Second Closing.
“We have been looking at entering the Reno market for a long time, and we believe the Nugget is a perfect fit for our portfolio. We look forward to welcoming the great team at the Nugget to Century Casinos,” Erwin Haitzmann and Peter Hoetzinger, Co-Chief Executive Officers of Century Casinos remarked. “We believe there is a lot of upside to this transaction and that we identified some areas of improvement to continue the Nugget’s growth. We expect the Nugget to seamlessly integrate and provide added synergies for Century Casinos’ US portfolio,” they concluded.
Nugget Casino Resort is located in Sparks, Nevada, conveniently located on Interstate 80 with easy access from Reno-Tahoe International Airport (approximately three miles). The full-service resort includes a large gaming floor, two hotel towers, 110,000 square feet of convention space, a 8,555 seat outdoor amphitheater, a wide variety of casual and fine dining options in addition to several on-site bars and lounges, and a 5-story 1,200 space parking garage and additional 1,272 parking spaces. The property consists of 50,200 square feet of casino space, 859 slot machines, 29 table games, 1,382 hotel rooms and seven dining venues. The Nugget Casino Resort had net operating revenue of $100.4m and Adjusted EBITDA of $32.8m based on preliminary results for the year ended December 31, 2021.
