$3 billion raised for Park Place merger

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 1999 | 10:29 a.m.

In the largest bank financing ever for a U.S. gaming company, Banc of America Securities completed $3 billion in senior credit facilities for Las Vegas-based Park Place Entertainment Inc. Park Place spokesman Geoff Davis said the rate of interest for the financing arrangement will be 6.645 percent.

The deal surpasses the previous record set last December by a $2.1 billion financing arrangement Park Place made with B of A.

The proceeds will be used to finance the purchase of the Caesars World gaming assets from Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc.

In April Park Place Entertainment entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Caesars and other gaming assets owned by Starwood, not including the Desert Inn.

Pending regulatory approval, the transaction is scheduled to close in the fourth quarter of 1999. Banc of America Securities serves as lead arranger and sole book manager, with Bank of Nova Scotia, Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown and Merrill Lynch Capital Corp. acting as documentation agents and co-arrangers.

Park Place Entertainment Corp. is the world's largest gaming company. With the opening of its Paris Las Vegas project last week, Park Place owns -- or has an interest in -- 17 gaming properties with 23,500 hotel rooms and 1.4 million square feet of gaming space in the United States, Australia and Uruguay.