Las Vegas Monorail step closer to exiting bankruptcy

The Las Vegas Monorail has filed a revised version of its bankruptcy reorganization plan that should clear away the last barriers to exiting Chapter 11.

The changes are mainly technical, designed to give added protections to the investors who hold the bonds with the highest repayment priority. For example, the IOUs the bondholders will receive from the case will be called bonds instead of notes, the monorail company can borrow as much as
$6 million for each of two new stations only after its board of directors unanimously approves it, and the bondholders hold a potential veto over the financing of any expansion.

Executives of the monorail, a nonprofit corporation, have often said that extending the south end of the 3.9-mile line from the MGM Grand to McCarran International Airport is critical to boosting chronically weak ridership and revenues.

The bondholders, owed $500.2 million, will be repaid with three sets of new bonds totaling $44.5 million.

The legal disputes between these bondholders and another set of bondholders owed $158.7 million were settled in August.

As a result, the monorail should now have a clear path to getting its bankruptcy plan approved at a Nov. 14 hearing.