Harrah’s swings to a quarterly profit

Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., the world’s largest casino company by revenue, said it swung to a fourth-quarter profit from a year-earlier loss that included hurricane-related costs and write-offs for planned property sales.

Harrah’s is being purchased by a group including Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management for $17.1 billion. Its board approved the deal in December, and Chief Executive Gary Loveman said Tuesday that the shareholder vote had been set for April 5 in Las Vegas.

The company posted net income of $47.6 million, or 25 cents a share, for the three months that ended Dec. 31 compared with a loss of $142.2 million, or 78 cents, a year earlier.

However, adjusted earnings from continuing operations dropped to $85.3 million, or 45 cents a share, from $143.4 million, or 77 cents, last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting a profit of 64 cents a share.

Revenue increased 16% to $2.43 billion, topping Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $2.29 billion. Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, climbed 6.8%.

Shares of Las Vegas-based Harrah’s fell 64 cents to $84.28.