"The strength of [The Caesars Palace Coup] is its vivid, behind-the-scenes footage of the 
insiders who now dominate the largest corporate bankruptcy cases, 
vignettes that will enliven many a law or business-school class in the 
next decade."

—Wall Street Journal


“The Caesars Palace Coup recounts in exquisite detail the 
extraordinary lengths that Marc Rowan and David Sambur, his Apollo 
partner, went to stave off the inevitable bankruptcy filing of Caesars 
in 2015, and the extraordinary lengths they went to during the two-year 
bankruptcy process to try to salvage their investment.”

—Vanity Fair


“An investigative deep-dive into an old-fashioned casino heist, which 
includes a $31 billion leveraged buyout and a string of financial 
engineering transactions by Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital—all
 in the midst of the post–Great Recession slump, pitting private equity 
firms and distressed-debt hedge funds against each other in an ultimate 
poker match.”

—Fortune



“A casino caper and legal thriller rolled into one…. An eccentric 
Illinois judge, whose final ruling ultimately stunned bankruptcy 
aficionados, and the rantings from the Masters of the Universe make the 
book entertaining, maybe essential, reading across Wall Street…. The Caesars Palace Coup helps make clear what such Wall Street clashes are really about: men with big egos swinging their lacrosse sticks.”
—Reuters Breakingviews



“Lawyers and bankers duke it out in this thorough if dry history of the 
downfall of the Caesars Entertainment empire…. a welcome respite from 
stodgier case studies.”

—Publishers Weekly






“The Caesars Palace Coup is a superb inside account of what 
modern high finance is actually like—the strategies, the personalities, 
the relationships, the stress, and the shouting. Fascinating, 
suspenseful, and comprehensive, it is the Barbarians at the Gate of distressed debt.”


 —Matt Levine, Money Stuff columnist, Bloomberg Opinion





“No story better captures early 21st century Wall Street like the bankruptcy of Caesars Entertainment. The Caesars Palace Coup
 is a well-researched, engaging modern-day corporate thriller, filled 
with epic courtroom and boardroom battles and the kinds of colorful 
characters that only exist on the buy-side. This is the fascinating 
inside story of a clash of the titans—the who’s who of distressed hedge 
funds battling each other and private equity giants Apollo and TPG for 
their piece of the Las Vegas casino conglomerate. . . . [A] must read 
for anyone who loves the deals and the drama that so often characterize 
the ins and outs of Wall Street and corporate restructuring.”


 —Kristin Mugford, Harvard Business School





“In The Caesars Palace Coup, two of Wall Street’s most plugged-in
 journalists take us deep inside corporate raiding, 21st century style. 
Exploiting distressed debt instead of undervalued stock, buccaneer hedge
 funds and other vulture investors pay seventy, sixty, sometimes less 
than fifty cents on the dollar to scoop up controlling stakes in 
troubled companies. This breathtaking narrative culminates in bitter 
financial and courtroom warfare as Apollo Global Management, its allies,
 and its high-powered lawyers and lobbyists maneuver relentlessly 
against equally savvy investors to freeze them out of the resulting rise
 in profits and force them to accept a ‘cramdown’ settlement of their 
stakes in the company.”


 —Paul Steiger, former Wall Street Journal managing editor and founding editor of ProPublica





“The distressed debt markets are the most rough-and-tumble corner of 
Wall Street, and Indap and Frumes have written the best book yet on the 
machinations, power moves, and personalities of the investors who make 
fortunes rolling the distressed debt dice.”


 —Jared A. Ellias, Bion M. Gregory Chair in Business Law, the University of California, Hastings





"There is so much to like in this book. Its primary strength is its Law 
& Order backstory, peeling back the onion of every major 
player...Four years of painstaking personal interviews have paid off 
handsomely in this fascinating account of the inner workings of big 
money and big law reorganization practice."


 —Jason Kilborn, Credit Slips

Préface
• e-ARC distribution to trade and consumer media, traditional and online.
• Targeted outreach to financial/economic industry organizations, websites, podcasts, and publications.
• Social media marketing on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads giveaways.
• PR Campaign with print, radio, and digital interview targets, including NPR and national TV.

Auteur

Sujeet Indap is the U.S. editor of the Lex Column at the Financial Times, where he contributes stories across the paper. He has written extensively on the intersection of corporate finance and corporate law. Indap was previously an investment banker before he joined the Financial Times in 2013. He is a graduate of Pomona College and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Indap lives in Manhattan, NY, with his wife.

Texte du rabat

It was the most brutal corporate restructuring in Wall Street history. The 2015 bankruptcy brawl for the storied casino giant, Caesars Entertainment, pitted brilliant and ruthless private equity legends against the world's most relentless hedge fund wizards. In the tradition of Barbarians at the Gate and The Big Short comes the riveting, multi-dimensional poker game between private equity firms and distressed debt hedge funds that played out from the Vegas Strip to Manhattan boardrooms to Chicago courthouses and even, for a moment, the halls of the United States Congress. On one side: relentless financial engineers Marc Rowan, David Sambur, and David Bonderman with their teams at Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital. On the other: superstar distressed debt investors Dave Miller and Ryan Mollett with their cohorts at the likes of Elliott Management, Oaktree Capital, and Appaloosa Management. The Caesars bankruptcy put a twist on the old-fashioned casino heist. Through a $27 billion leveraged buyout and a dizzying string of financial engineering transactions, Apollo and TPGin the midst of the post-Great Recession slumphad seemingly snatched every prime asset of the company from creditors, with the notable exception of Caesars Palace. But Caesars hedge fund lenders and bondholders had scooped up the companys paper for nickels and dimes. And with their own armies of lawyers and bankers, they were ready to do everything necessary to take back what they believed was theirsif they could just stop their own infighting. These modern financiers now dominate the scene in Corporate America as their fight-to-the-death mentality continues to shock workers, politicians, and broader societyand even each other. In The Caesars Palace Coup, financial journalists Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap illuminate the brutal tactics of distressed debt mavensvultures, as they are condemnedin the sale and purchase of even the biggest companies in the world with billions of dollars hanging in the balance.