Australia’s Crown Resorts will top off its AU$2.2 billion Sydney hotel and casino tower this week, and is on track for grand opening in early 2021. At the same time, the company helmed by Aussie billionaire James Packer is under scrutiny by the New South Wales, which will launch suitability hearings starting Monday.
The hearings are just the latest headache for Packer, whose company has been buffeted in recent years by failed corporate alliances, seesawing revenues, ditched projects and the 2016 arrests of 19 employees for promoting gaming in mainland China. On a personal level, Packer has admitted to episodes of depression that caused him to step back from his leadership role in the company.
According to Bloomberg, the public hearings will determine if Crown should keep its license to run the Sydney resort, a harborside development that Packer has promoted for almost a decade. His 37 percent stake in Crown, a company with a market value of AU$8 billion, is his single-biggest investment.
Most troubling for Crown’s future are alleged links to Chinese organized crime. Reports last July by Nine Entertainment Co. newspapers indicated that at least one Asian crime syndicate laundered money through Crown’s casinos and the firm allegedly used junket operators with links to drug traffickers to bring in high-rollers. Crown called the reports part of a “deceitful campaign” that sought to damage the company’s reputation. Crown added that it is cooperating fully with the inquiry and will work with regulators on any recommendations.
In light of Crown’s ongoing troubles and the new probe, Crown Resorts’ stocks hit its lowest value in more than three years last week. The company traded as low as A$10.70, the lowest since November 2016, despite the fact that net profits in were up 24.8 percent in the second half of 2019 revenue from operations rose 3.6 percent.
The current probe, headed by former Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin,
was launched in 2019 by NSW’s Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority. Among those who have been called to testify are Packer himself and Lawrence Ho, chairman and CEO of Melco Resorts & Entertainment, whose company sought to purchase a major stake in Crown, but recently backed off.
Meanwhile, work goes on at Crown Sydney, which, when complete, will feature a six-star hotel with 349 guest rooms and suites, luxury apartments, restaurants, bars, luxury retail outlets, pool and spa facilities, conference rooms and VIP gaming facilities.
