Churchill Downs Incorporated, a leading Kentucky- based horse racing company, purchased a significant part of Peninsula Pacific Entertainment LLC, for a total payment of 2,75 billion dollars. The acquisition was officially completed and announced to the public on November 1st, 2022 in Louisville, Kentucky.
New purchase:
With this latest purchase, Churchill Downs Incorporated attained its goal of expanding its presence across Iowa, New York and Virginia. Also, it gives company a chance to introduce its innovative, extraordinary assets to a brand new audience.
The Peninsula Pacific Entertainment transaction involves:
- Del Rago Resort & Casino in Waterloo, New York, a 96,000 sq. ft. casino with roughly 1,700 slot machines, 80 table games, a 205-room hotel, nine restaurants/bar areas, 758 covered parking spaces, a 6,000 sq. ft. sportsbook area, a 2,400-seat entertainment venue and a 7,200 sq. ft. outdoor event venue
- Colonial Downs Racetrack in New Kent, Virginia including 6 Rosie’s Gaming Emporium historical horse racing facilities across Virginia. Rosie’s Gaming Emporium locations nowdays include Collinsville, Dumfries, Hampton, New Kent, Richmond, Vinton and consists of roughly 2,700 historical racing machines.
- Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Sioux City, Iowa, a 45,000 sq. ft. casino with approximately 539 slot machines, 20 table games, a 54-room hotel, 1,511 parking spaces, 2 live entertainment venues, a 100-piece music memorabilia collection and a Hard Rock-branded sportsbook.
Also, the P2E purchase involves other development rights:
- The rights to set up a new historical racing machines entertainment venue with around 1,800 historical racing machines in Dumfries, Virginia. The Dumfries project is detected in northern Virginia with the starting phase set to begin in 2023;
- The opportunity, under Virginia law, to set up around 5 extra historical racing machines entertainment venues in Virginia with roughly 2,300 extra historical racing machines;
- The P2E’s rights in its current partnership with Urban One for building ONE Casino + Resort, a 565 million dollars destination casino in Richmond, Virginia;
- The rights to build a new historical racing machines venue with up to 150 historical racing machines in Emporia, Virginia. The Emporia project is detected along I-95 near the North Carolina border is set to begin in 2023.
Bill Carstanjen, Chief Executive Officer at Churchill Downs Incorporated, said: “Today marks a significant moment in the evolution of Churchill Downs Incorporated. This transaction meaningfully expands our geographic footprint to Iowa, New York and Virginia, introducing a very unique set of assets and attractive organic growth opportunities to our company. We are excited to welcome the teams from each of these well-established properties into Churchill Downs Incorporated.”
Macquarie Capital was exclusive financial advisor and Sidley Austin was legal advisor to Churchill Downs Incorporated on the purchase.
Kentucky-based horse racing company:
Churchill Downs Incorporated is Kentucky-based horse racing business known as the home of the Kentucky Derby and is founded in 1875.
It’s main focus is conducting purebred horse racing, but the company is also very good in the iGaming market.