Crown Resorts Ltd (ASX: CWN) has been denied a planning extension for its One Queensbridge project in Melbourne.
Crown Resorts is one of Australia’s largest gaming and entertaiment 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.
Why The Crown Resorts Planning Extension Was Denied
One Queensbridge was supposed to be one of Crown’s major construction projects, along with Crown Sydney, that it planned to complete over the next few years.
The project was going to be a 6-star hotel with 388 rooms as well as 708 residential apartments and become Australia’s tallest building, expanding the already-huge Melbourne entertainment complex.
A couple of weeks ago the casino operator said that it and its joint venture partner, Schiavello, had applied for an extension for the construction date for the One Queensbridge project.
However, Crown has announced that the Victorian Government informally notified the partners that a construction extension has been denied. A formal notice is expected to be received from the Victorian Government shortly.
The reason why Crown and Schiavello wanted an extension was that it was subject to obtaining financing arrangements that were satisfactory, but the arrangements could not be achieved before the construction commencement date.
Crown still retains a 50% ownership stake of the land and will now consider what to do next.
Is Crown A Buy?
As a reminder, Crown recently reported its statutory profit increased by 9.9% before significant items to $174.9 million, or down 26.7% after significant items. Crown reported that normalised net profit was up 0.9% to $194.1 million.
With a steady dividend of 30 cents per share every six months, decent organic growth and the prospect of Crown Sydney coming online in the next couple of years, there’s quite a bit to like about Crown. However, I see the potential loss of One Queensbridge as a long term negative, I’d rather buy one of the proven shares in the free report below.
3 ASX Shares That Are A Better Bet Than Crown?
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