Billionaire James Packer has agreed to sell around half of his holding of Crown Resorts Ltd (ASX: CWN) shares.
Crown Resorts is one of Australia’s largest gaming and entertainment groups. It operates two integrated resorts in Melbourne and Perth. Crown also fully owns and operates Crown Aspinalls in London, one of the high-end licensed casinos in the West End entertainment district. It is currently developing Crown Sydney at Barangaroo.
James Packers Sells Half His Shares
Fairfax Media outlets such as the Australian Financial Review are reporting that James Packer’s private investment vehicle called Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH) is going to sell a 19.99% stake of Crown Resorts for $1.8 billion to Melco Resorts and Entertainment, which is operated by Mr Lawrence Ho.
Mr Packer has recently been interested in selling out of his Crown stake, which is why he contemplated a takeover offer from Wynn Resorts.
James Packer’s CPH is selling the shares at $13 per share, which is a lot lower than the $14.75 per share implied value in the Wynn Resorts offer which was 50% cash and 50% Wynn shares.
The AFR quoted Mr Packer in a statement, “Crown has been a massive part of my life for the last 20 years and that absolutely remains the case today – my continuing Crown shareholding represents my single largest investment.
“I am still vitally interested in Crown’s success as a world class resort and gaming business. The sale allows me to continue my long-term involvement with Crown and at the same time to better diversify my investment portfolio.”
CPH will still own 26% of Crown.
So Who Is Mr Ho?
Mr Ho is the son of Macau gaming tycoon Stanley Ho. He intends to up the stake in Crown if granted the opportunity by state governments due to checks that need to be made by Australian regulators.
Perhaps in the future we will see Mr Packer sell the rest of his stake to Mr Ho’s Melco Resorts.
It’s an interesting development and I’m not sure what this means for the rest of Crown’s shareholders. I wouldn’t base a decision just off this event, but I would consider looking at more reliable shares for my portfolio such as the winners in the free report below.
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