James Packer to recieve astronomical payday as Blackstone takeover of Crown confirmed
James Packer will receive an astronomical payday as the Federal Court has approved US private equity giant Blackstone’s $8.9b takeover Crown Resorts.
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James Packer will receive an astronomical payday as the Federal Court has approved US private equity giant Blackstone’s $8.9 billion takeover Crown Resorts.
It means the billionaire, who is the largest single owner of shares in Crown, will pocket $3.36 billion on June 24 in exchange for his 37 per cent stake in the company.
The court’s decision this morning was the final hurdle in the approval of the deal. Blackstone had previously been given the green light from state governments in Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria.
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The takeover means Crown Resorts will become a private company and no longer be required to report to the ASX.
It marks the end of an era for Mr Packer who first became involved in Crown in 1999, and is understood to have wanted an escape route for many years.
It also comes after years of scandals at Crown, including staff getting jailed in China, and several inquiries which found the casino operator enabled money laundering and links to criminal gangs.
Crown was one of only two stocks out of the top 200 companies on the Australian stock exchange that saw its share price increase amid a bloodbath on Tuesday.
The deal will be finalised on June 24. That is when Crown shareholders, including Mr Packer, will be paid out.
Packer’s 20 years of hell
Mr Packer’s big payout comes after a difficult couple of decades for the tycoon, despite the massive amount of wealth he has accumulated.
It all began in 2001 when his business venture One.Tel ended in spectacular fashion and wiped out his personal fortune, he fled to the United States in the midst of a complete breakdown.
The media spotlight was shining brightly on son of media magnate Kerry Packer due to the public collapse of the telecommunications company.
His friends were so worried about him, they feared he would take his own life.
“When One.Tel collapsed, I ran into James down at the Capital Golf Course. He was on his own. He was absolutely desolate. He said to me, ‘I feel like a general without an army’,” former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett told author Damon Kitney in a biography on Mr Packer.
“Those words have stuck with me. He got into an awful spot then. He was absolutely suicidal at times.”
Scientology and Tom Cruise
It was in the States that Mr Packer found a way to cope with his world falling down around him – Scientology – and he was brought into the church by none other than its poster boy and megastar Tom Cruise. The pair became good mates, but Mr Packer has since distanced himself from the church.
It was also in 2002 that his two-year marriage with glamour model Jodhi Meares broke down, sparking waves of headlines about their private lives in the nation’s gossip columns.
Mr Packer’s relationship with his father Kerry Packer – who was reportedly furious at his son’s business failure – also became strained that year.
Their relationship remained that way for many years until a call between them in 2005, in which the elder Packer told his heir apparent to carve out his own path in life. The elder Packer passed away later that year, aged 68.
In the years that followed, Mr Packer followed his dad’s advice and moved away from his family’s traditional media businesses to focus on creating a worldwide gambling empire.
However, disaster struck again with the Global Financial Crisis in 2008.
By 2009, he saw the value of his assets, including casinos, pay TV stations, ski resorts and financial service providers, halve in a year, from $6 billion to less than $3 billion.
On top of his financial woes, his private life never really left the spotlight. He has in more recent years opened up about his struggles with alcohol addiction, and revealed he was being bipolar disorder in 2015.
Hollywood sex scandal
In 2013, he found himself embroiled in a Hollywood sex scandal after texts he sent to former girlfriend, young British actor Charlotte Kirk, were leaked.
According to texts between the pair, they met in November 2012 when she was 20 and he was 45.
In September 2013, he texted Ms Kirk who was 21 at the time: “I have the opportunity of a lifetime for u. Come to (the Hotel) Bel air now. U will never be able to pay me.”
Mr Packer promised Kirk a meeting with “the most important man you can meet”. It was Warner Bros CEO Kevin Tsujihara.
Over the next few years, according to the hundreds of text messages obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Kirk and the Warner Bros chairman were allegedly involved in a sexual relationship in exchange for furthering the British actor’ career.
Packer’s fist fight
One of the most public lows of the tycoon’s rollercoaster ride, was his fist fight in broad daylight on a Bondi Beach footpath in 2014 with then Nine chief executive David Gyngell.
The former best mates were seen brawling on the street outside Mr Packer’s multimillion-dollar Bondi Beach pad in Sydney. Pictures show the men aggressively wrestling, before falling to the ground in a head lock.
A witness told The Australian “it was like two mad dogs at each other’s throats”.
Mr Cyngell was waiting outside the property for Mr Packer to arrive home from the airport and engaged in a heated phone conversation just moments before Mr Packer’s car arrived at the scene, with him repeatedly saying he was “going to punch him”.
The pair needed to be separated by what appeared to be Mr Packer’s bodyguards and they then retreated to their homes, with a doctor attending the home of Mr Packer.
At the time, the relationship between the childhood friends was said to have broken down after Mr Packer and his second wife Erica announced their separation six months earlier.
Disastrous relationship
Shortly after, in 2015, he embarked on a whirlwind relationship with pop star Mariah Carey before becoming engaged in January 2016.
Mr Packer popped the question in New York with a $10 million 35 carat Wilfredo Rosado-designed ring.
It was all downhill from there and the pair were plagued by damning news reports.
By September, headlines circulated they had a massive fight during a holiday in Mykonos, Greece, with Ms Carey’s representative telling People at the time, “Mariah and James had a fight in Greece, and have not seen each other since. The fight was not because of any cheating allegations or excessive spending by Mariah.”
By October, they had called off the engagement, and Ms Carey immediately moved on with US choreographer Bryan Tanaka.
It was reported at the time that the break-up was a result of Ms Carey’s extravagant spending and disagreements over her reality show Mariah’s World, but Mr Packer later said that the relationship had simply been a “mistake” on both sides.
“I was at a low point in my personal life. Documenting the negotiations with my sister was taking longer than expected,” Mr Packer told The Australian in 2017.
“She was kind, exciting and fun. Mariah is a woman of substance. But it was a mistake for her and a mistake for me.”
The billionaire paid the music icon somewhere between $A6-$13 million, the deal being settled in the last few months, TheBlast.com reported.
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