Icahn makes winning bid for bankrupt Fontainebleau

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has made the winning bid to acquire the bankrupt, partially built Fontainebleau Las Vegas Resort.

According to a court document filed late on Tuesday, the examiner tasked with running a court-supervised auction of the Fontainebleau said the only qualified bid received for the company was from Icahn Nevada Gaming Acquisition LLC.

Icahn offered $156.5 million (96.2 million pounds) to buy the casino in November, topping a previous offer from Penn National Gaming Inc, which dropped out of the bidding.

According to the examiner, two other submissions were made by the bid deadline, but did not meet qualifications to close the sale, so Icahn's bid was declared the winner.

Icahn was not immediately available to comment.

The Fontainebleau filed for bankruptcy protection in June after lenders cut off access to nearly $800 million in construction funds in the wake of cost overruns and the global financial crisis.

The 3,800-room casino resort, towards the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip, has already cost $2 billion.

Icahn has been an active player in the distressed gaming sector in the past year as several casinos have been forced into bankruptcy by a decline in consumer spending and hotel visits.

Last year, an Icahn was involved in a deal to buy Tropicana Entertainment LLC's Atlantic City casino and the financier has recently teamed up with Beal Bank to present a restructuring plan for bankrupt Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc, also in Atlantic City.

Icahn acquired the Las Vegas Strip's Stratosphere hotel and casino out of bankruptcy in 1998, but sold the property in 2007, along with three smaller casinos, to Goldman Sachs Group Inc for $1.3 billion.

The case is In re: Fontainebleau Las Vegas Holdings LLC, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Florida, No. 09-21481.

(Reporting by Emily Chasan; editing by John Wallace and Andre Grenon)