Splitting heirs but James Packer cedes title in sale of Crown Resort shares
JAMES Packer is no longer majority owner of Crown Resorts after selling shares to pay debt he racked up after a carve up of the family empire with sister Gretel.
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JAMES Packer is no longer majority owner of Crown Resorts after selling shares to pay debt he racked up following a carve up of the family empire with sister Gretel.
Mr Packer has cut his holding in the casino group below 50 per cent after selling the parcel of shares, amounting to a 4.8 per cent stake worth almost $450 million.
The billionaire’s private investment company, Consolidated Press Holdings, sold 35 million Crown shares at $12.80 apiece — a 5 per cent discount to the closing price on Friday. Consolidated Press remains by far the biggest shareholder in Crown, with a stake of 48.2 per cent.
It emerged earlier this year that Mr Packer and his sister had renegotiated a split of the family assets after originally negotiating a settlement last year. Under the deal, Ms Packer received cash and other assets worth about $1.25 billion. It is believed Mr Packer borrowed money at the time to settle with Ms Packer.
While he is no longer majority owner of Crown, he could reclaim that title quickly.
Under creep provisions in Australian Securities Exchange rules, he could build his stake by three percentage points over six months without launching a full takeover offer.
The buyers of Mr Packer’s shares have not been disclosed.
Consolidated Press legal counsel Catherine Davies said in a statement the share sale had been carried out as part of the group’s “financing and capital management strategy”.
Mr Packer now has no official title at Crown after standing down as chairman last year. But Crown chief Rowen Craigie has said he is a “very interested and engaged” investor.
In June, Crown unveiled plans for a split of the casino empire, spinning overseas assets from Macau to Las Vegas into a new listed company.
The company also announced it would consider bundling its Australian hotels into a property trust that could be floated.
Ms Davies said that Consolidated Press remained “deeply committed to Crown Resorts and is excited about the future for the company”.
Crown shares closed 1.5 per cent lower yesterday at $13.32.
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