The Australian casino mogul James Packer has spent 2017 trying to climb back on top after a brutal year where his Crown Resorts tumbled after losing its gamble in the Chinese Market when 18 of his employees were arrested.
He has had, in fact, a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.
An article in November issue of Forbes Asia describes how Packer was at the peak of his career just over a year ago when he had formed a partnership with Lawrence Ho to move into both Macau, China’s gaming enclave, and the Philippines. He was also very publically engaged to pop star Mariah Carey. At the same time, he was planning the $4 billion Alon hotel and casino in Las Vegas.
At which time things went south. When the fiscal year ended June 30 the revenue from Crown’s Asian VIPs had fallen 49 percent. Casino consultant Peter Klugsberger of Ovion Partners calls it “make or break time for them.” Oh, yes, Carey also broke up with him.
Packer has devoted himself to reversing the decline and is reportedly overseeing much of his empire personally. He took back his seat on the Crown board, divested himself of a movie production partnership, put the Alon project on hold, sold the Melco Crown and reshuffled his top executives.
Using the profits from the sales to pay down debt he has seen his net worth rebound from $3 billion in February to $3.7 billion today.
He has told investors that Crown’s global strategy was a bust and pledged to rethink that strategy and be more upfront with shareholders.
Klugsberger told Forbes: “My bet is that they will conceive a new business model, develop new capabilities and systems, and come out better in the end.” But that could be a long way away, he admits.
