Pulling out of Revel sale expensive for Brookfield

Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management may be ruing the day it won an auction for Atlantic City casino firm Revel Entertainment on a bid of $110 million.

The company subsequently issued a statement that it was walking away from the deal after a dispute with bondholders over debt from the construction of the casino’s costly power plant (see previous reports).

This week the issue was in bankruptcy court again, where Judge Gloria Burns granted a request by Revel to cancel the sale, enabling Revel to accept a $95 million bid from Florida developer Glenn Straub… a fire sale price on the relatively new $2.4 billion complex.

Revel legal representatives told the court that the closing date for the sale was November 28, and that Brookfield had already publicly announced its intention to walk away from the deal, thus affirmatively repudiating the contract.

He also noted that Revel intends to keep the $11 million deposit laid down by Brookfield under the terms of the agreement.

Judge Burns set a further hearing on the Straub offer for January 5.