July 2 (Bloomberg) -- Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., the casino company founded by real estate developer Donald Trump, failed to find a buyer after a three-month search, sending its shares to the biggest drop in two years.
The offers the company received weren't likely to lead to a transaction, Trump said today in a statement. Trump hired Merrill Lynch & Co. in March to explore a sale. It held negotiations with a group of investors that included Dennis Gomes, the former manager of the Trump Taj Mahal.
Trump, whose television program ``The Apprentice'' professed to show how a business should run, has struggled to make money for investors of his casinos. Three of his properties went bankrupt in the early 1990s. He led the company through nine years of losses and six months of bankruptcy before relinquishing the chief executive officer post in 2005.
``The assets are old and tired, and that's the problem,'' said Justin Sebastiano, an analyst at San Francisco-based Nollenberger Capital Partners. As competitors upgrade, ``it's only going to get tougher for the rest of the year and into '08,'' he said.
Last year Trump Entertainment tried to enter the Philadelphia casino market, then dropped the plans after losing a bid to secure a Pennsylvania license.
The shares fell $2.29, or 18 percent, to $10.29, at 2:15 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading, their lowest since May 2005. The stock fell 19 percent from June 8 -- when Trump announced it had bidders -- through last week.
The offers the company received weren't likely to lead to a transaction, Trump said today in a statement. Trump hired Merrill Lynch & Co. in March to explore a sale. It held negotiations with a group of investors that included Dennis Gomes, the former manager of the Trump Taj Mahal.
Trump, whose television program ``The Apprentice'' professed to show how a business should run, has struggled to make money for investors of his casinos. Three of his properties went bankrupt in the early 1990s. He led the company through nine years of losses and six months of bankruptcy before relinquishing the chief executive officer post in 2005.
``The assets are old and tired, and that's the problem,'' said Justin Sebastiano, an analyst at San Francisco-based Nollenberger Capital Partners. As competitors upgrade, ``it's only going to get tougher for the rest of the year and into '08,'' he said.
Last year Trump Entertainment tried to enter the Philadelphia casino market, then dropped the plans after losing a bid to secure a Pennsylvania license.
The shares fell $2.29, or 18 percent, to $10.29, at 2:15 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading, their lowest since May 2005. The stock fell 19 percent from June 8 -- when Trump announced it had bidders -- through last week.
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