Caesars (Harrahs) going public

I trade and invest for a living..IMHO the offering was a joke. It was such a small raise (18-19MM) and was only floated to get the stock trading for the endless stream of secondary offerings likely to follow. There are absolutely no lock ups on the institutional holders (private equity and hedge funds) to sell stock. This is not a cheap stock but you wont be able to short it because there just isn't any out there to lend. The best bet is to wait until they trade options on it and buy some puts if you think its too expensive.

22BB in debt and no Macau exposure, I say stay away for now. If they actually start increasing cash flow and paying down debt then you could see a nice effect on earnings. 12x EBITDA is way to expensive for this company compared to say WYNN at 10.5x EBITDA

Bloomberg Article

I don't see any Put Options available yet, but those will come for sure. Lower risk way to play the downside of course you have to get the timing right :-)!!

I'm not an investor, and I only have a small working knowledge of how the markets work. I am, however, a Caesars player and know a bit about the company.

My gut feeling tells me they have something in the works and need a bit of cash flow to get that going. This company has gone private, then public, then back to private again. Perhaps they are looking at another buyout or merger (Boyd, maybe?) or the acquisition of some distressed properties (Isle of Capri). Again, this isn't based on any knowledge, but I guess I don't see any other reason to go public.

Bloomberg TV just ran a spot. We watch at work with the sound muted, but it appears that CZR is looking at selling some midwest/MS properties in order to finance a potential entrance into MA and/or FL. I'm not sure what to think about that. On the one hand, those are my favorite CZR properties. On the otherhand, they can't really get worse under new management.