This Month
What it costs to get a company’s name on an F1 driver’s helmet
What are candlestick chart trading patterns doing on the headgear of F1 driver Lance Stroll? It’s just part of the big money sponsors are rushing to spend.
February
James Packer’s casino charity deals in the elite
Attendees at the lunch included Albo, Dutton, Sarah Murdoch and Scott Farquhar, as Sydney’s movers and shakers celebrated some good old corporate philanthropy.
January
Crown sells London’s high-end Aspinall’s to Las Vegas giant Wynn
The Blackstone-owned casino operator has been overhauling its portfolio, last year selling its stake in Japanese restaurant chain Nobu in a $180 million deal.
December 2024
The Year of Brilliant Jerks: Rear Window’s year in review
Trump, Ellison, White, Adgemis, Gupta and that Rinehart portrait. For Rear Window, the end of shame and pretense added up to a ripping year of stories.
Crown Resorts wants to add pokies to the mix at its Sydney casino
The Blackstone-owned hospitality and gambling giant has been prohibited from installing gaming machines under terms struck when it secured its NSW licence.
November 2024
$100 pokie limits in Victorian crackdown
Player cards will be introduced across all gaming machines in the state, bringing pubs and clubs in line with restrictions at Melbourne’s Crown casino.
Blackstone builds Crown Resorts debt bomb as casino profits slide
The private equity giant says it’s comfortable with the big loan it took to buy the casino operator, despite the interest bill and an earnings crunch.
October 2024
Why Tabcorp’s Gill McLachlan has banned pollies from the Birdcage
Politicians and journalists have been given short shrift, while Anthony Albanese and others will probably skip G.H. Mumm’s private jet theme.
Crown sells abandoned Southbank precinct, private jet
Blackstone’s casino giant Crown Resorts has narrowed its losses and is shedding some of its biggest assets to offset financial challenges.
All this drama at Star for a slap on the wrist and $15m fine?
The casino group gets one more chance in Sydney, but is far from being out of the woods. It could go broke if it doesn’t secure a big new backer by this time next year.
Blackstone quietly injects almost $500m into ailing Crown Resorts
The financing came a year after the firm acquired the casino operator for $8.9 billion. Its operations have been hurt by fines and a lack of high rollers.
Blackstone’s Crown knocked back in NSW pokies request
Sources said the proposal involved buying poker machines that would have otherwise been purchased by the NSW government under a five-year buyback scheme.
September 2024
Blackstone’s Crown Resorts mulls sale of luxury Melbourne golf course
The 18-hole Capital is one of the country’s most private and catered exclusively for the casino group’s high rollers. Now wealthy businessmen want to revive it.
Blackstone is burning through Crown Casino
The global real estate giant has lost another top-ranking casino executive, to go with the two others who left last month.
August 2024
Ciaran Carruthers to leave Crown Resorts
The departing chief executive will be replaced by David Tsai as interim CEO from September 1.
July 2024
Crown offloads Nobu stake in deal valuing restaurant group at $1.3b
Blackstone-run Crown has had a 20 per cent stake in the acclaimed Japanese chain, part-owned by Robert De Niro, since James Packer bought in a decade ago.
June 2024
Star casino chair lets loose on LinkedIn
Star Entertainment is celebrating its award-winning staff inclusion. What would the leader of the board think about it?
All in the family for Gil McLachlan’s fantastic corporate adventure
The new jobs for the former AFL CEO include advising Blackstone, where his cousin is chairman of private equity.
The top 21 moments in Chanticleer history
The Chanticleer column has charted the highs and lows of corporate Australia since 1974. Here are a few of the highlights.
Ex-Virgin boss John Borghetti appointed Crown Resorts chairman
Bill McBeath, a veteran US casino executive who ran The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, will step aside but remain on the Blackstone-owned gaming group’s board.