Ameristar execs to ring opening bell at NASDAQ|[02/01/07]

Published 12:00 am Thursday, February 1, 2007

Ameristar executives will stand at the pinnacle of capitalism Friday, ringing the bell to open the trading day for NASDAQ in New York.

The selection of the company’s board co-chairmen is in conjunction with the casino company releasing its earnings tonight. Earnings of 25 cents per share are forecast.

&#8220It is a great honor to preside over the market opening of NASDAQ,” said Ray Neilsen of Vicksburg, corporate vice president in charge of operations and special projects, in addition to serving as co-chairman. &#8220Though we will stand at the forefront on Friday, it is all the dedicated Ameristar Team Members who drive the success and continued growth of the company.”

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Joining Neilsen will be John Boushy, Ameristar CEO and president, and Tom Steinbauer, finance chief.

Neilsen is set to hit the platform just before 9:30 a.m. Boushy, named chief executive officer in November following the death of Ray Neilsen’s father, Craig H. Neilsen, will ring the bell. They will all three stand on the same platform, where celebrities and executives have stood before.

Craig H. Neilsen, an Idaho construction executive who entered the casino industry in the middle of his career, created Ameristar when the decision was made to locate a casino in Vicksburg.

Before the facility opened in February 1994, he took a portion of the company public, meaning Ameristar Casino has been traded on NASDAQ for 13 years.

Ameristar has become one of the 10 largest companies in the gaming industry. Under terms of his will, Craig Neilson’s holdings in the company will go to a charitable foundation he created to research treatment of spinal cord injuries. He had become a quadriplegic in a car accident.

Ameristar has more than 56 million outstanding shares and a market capitalization at $1.71 billion. During the past year, Ameristar has traded from a low of $16.73 per share to a high of $33.41. Today’s opening price was $30.52

The company now has seven casinos in six markets. In Vicksburg, expansion plans include parking garages and a second hotel.

At least two other people with Vicksburg connections have rung the bell in the past 18 months. Carl Chaney, a Warren County native and a chief executive officer of Hancock Bank on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and Paul Murphy, a Vicksburg native and Houston, Texas, banker, both have opened the day’s activities.