Crown Resorts shareholders were supposed to have voted April 29 on a proposed acquisition of the Australian casino giant by the Blackstone Group. But that vote has been delayed to May 20 as the U.S. private equity firm is reviewed by state regulators.
Last week, Crown told the Australian Stock Exchange that “good progress has been made [by Blackstone] in obtaining the gaming regulatory approvals required … [but] those approvals have not yet been obtained.”
Inside Asian Gaming reports that the proposed acquisition has already been approved by the Australian government’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).
Crown has urged shareholders to sign off on Blackstone’s proposal to acquire all shares in the company for AU$8.9 billion (US$6.5 billion), equivalent to AU$13.10 per share.
Blackstone already holds a 9.99 percent stake in Crown, which it acquired from Melco Resorts & Entertainment in April 2020. Melco had purchased the stake from James Packer’s Consolidated Press Holdings a year earlier, but canceled a second tranche after regulators in New South Wales (NSW) launched the Bergin Report. The results of that inquiry, published in February 2021, cost Crown its NSW casino license, just as it was open to open a lavish new resort in Sydney.
The company has faced similarly damning inquiries in Victoria and Western Australia, which made Crown ripe for a takeover. Investigators found that the firm turned a blind eye to compliance standards and tolerated money laundering by high rollers at its casinos in Perth and Melbourne.
