U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Judith Wizmur has ruled that developer Donald J. Trump and Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. can maintain control of three Atlantic City casinos that bear the Trump name,
the
Philadelphia Inquirer
reported.
The judge ruled that in favor of a plan by bondholders and the company to bring the company out of bankruptcy for a third time, the report noted. Billionaire financier Carl Icahn had battled against Trump for control of the company. The two sides argued in court over “the value of the Trump brand, and whether the three casinos could survive without it,” the article said.
Acknowledging the Trump casinos’ difficulties in making mortgage-interest payments as revenues have tumbled in the last few years, Wizmur ruled that their continued use of the Trump name — which an Icahn takeover could not guarantee — was critical. It was compelling enough, Wizmur reasoned, to override the fact that the Icahn plan would have left the company completely debt-free.
The judge wrote:
“… the perpetual, royalty-free license of the continued use of the name and likeness of Donald Trump, the newly established right to use the name and likeness of Ivanka Trump, and the restrictive covenant imposed on the Trump parties to prohibit the use of the Trump brand in connection with casino or gaming activities in New Jersey and six adjacent states all tilt the balance in favor of approving the settlement as being in the paramount interest of the reorganized debtors.”
Trump Entertainment will now be controlled by a committee of hedge funds, the
Inquirer
reported. Under a plan approved by the judge, Trump will own 5% of the company, with the right to purchase an additional 5%.
For Donald Trump … the decision was validation of what he has trumpeted all along: that his name and brand were worth millions.
(Source:
Philadelphia Inquirer,
April 13, 2010.)
-
980 reads