Penn National Gaming will buy Pinnacle Entertainment, which operates several casinos including the L’Auberge resorts in Baton Rouge and Lake Charles, for $2.8 billion, the companies announced today.
Boyd Gaming Corporation is also buying four of Pinnacle’s 16 properties in a separate deal worth $575 million, while Penn will acquire the rest, including the company’s Louisiana properties.
Penn National will operate a combined 41 properties after the deal closes, likely in the second half of 2018.
From July to October this year, L’Auberge Baton Rouge, which opened in 2012, did more than $56 million in revenues, twice the amount generated by either the Belle of Baton Rouge or Hollywood Casino, according to figures from the Gaming Control Board. A spokeswoman for L’Auberge Casino & Hotel Baton Rouge deferred all questions about the acquisition to Pinnacle Entertainment spokesman Troy Stremming, who was not immediately available for comment.
The three casinos in Baton Rouge do around $285 million in adjusted revenues annually.
Ronnie Jones, chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, says the deal will probably not impact the market much locally, and customers won’t be able to tell a difference. He doesn’t expect any regulatory roadblocks in Louisiana, but adds it is “early in the game.”
Jones, who will meet with the executives of Pinnacle and Penn in the coming weeks, says he has heard good things about Penn’s reputation from regulators in other states.
The move by Penn adds a few big-time resorts to the firm’s portfolio, says Jones, including L’Auberge in Baton Rouge and Lake Charles. The L’Auberge in Lake Charles, which nearly doubled the revenues of the Baton Rouge property in October, could wind up being the largest resort in Penn’s portfolio.
The deal will give Pinnacle shareholders $32.47 per share in stock and cash and has already been approved by the board of both companies.
It also comes as state officials finalize recommendations for the casino industry in Louisiana, which, if approved by the Legislature, could move the state’s aging riverboat casinos onto land. L’Auberge Baton Rouge, which is technically a riverboat, is not expected to make any major changes under the proposed new rules.
—Sam Karlin
