Firm to use investment to buy hotel-casino

Monday, Oct. 4, 1999 | 12:30 p.m.

Las Vegas Entertainment Network Inc. announced it signed a $190 million investment agreement with two unidentified investors.

Each investor will receive 6 million shares of common stock in LVEN, giving the two parties 64.7 percent control of the Los Angeles-based company. The investment agreement is valued at $15.83 per share, well above its current market value of less than $2 per share.

LVEN said it will use the funds to acquire "a major hotel-casino and amusement center in Las Vegas," as well as company expansion, and will place $10 million into a purchase escrow. LVEN said the remaining $180 million in cash will be received within 60 days.

LVEN had announced earlier this year that six anonymous trusts would purchase 3 million shares in the company for $305 million.

The company has also been attempting to negotiate the sale of the defunct El Rancho property on the Strip on behalf of New Jersey-based International Thoroughbred Breeders Inc., a transaction it said it hoped to close by the end of September. LVEN did not say how those negotiations were progressing.

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