By Colin Kruger
Barely two weeks have passed since US investment group Blackstone took control of Crown Resorts, but it is already remaking James Packer’s casino operator in its own image.
With Ziggy Switkowski’s board removed with the handover last month, Blackstone appointed one of its seasoned casino executives, Bill McBeath, to take the chair.
McBeath had only just stepped down as chief executive of another Blackstone business - The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas - after it was handed to new owners in what was one of the most profitable deals in the investment group’s history. It was reflected in the $US5,000 ($7,300) bonus handed to each of the casino’s 5,400 employees.
New CEO of Crown Resorts, Ciaran Carruthers, has had an extensive career in Macau and family roots in Australia.
On Thursday, Crown announced that the executive who was parachuted in last year to turnaround the group’s fortunes, former Lend Lease CEO Steve McCann, will be replaced in September by casino veteran, Ciarán Carruthers, who straddles two important geographies for Crown.
Carruthers is currently the chief operating officer at Wynn Macau Resort, one of many roles he has held in Macau over the last 20 years. It will give him an insight into the Chinese tourists who will still be critical to Crown’s success.
The only break Carruthers took from Macau was to set up a gaming consultancy in 2009 when he returned to Australia to spend more time with his Adelaide-based family. Dublin-born Carruthers has Australian permanent residency.
His new job, which will be based in Melbourne, will bring Carruthers a lot closer to home.
Other executives are expected to be announced to head Crown’s flagship Melbourne casino, and Perth operation, but the key people are in place with McBeath and Carruthers.
The New York-based Blackstone has considerable experience with casinos and hotels. In Las Vegas it recently owned The Cosmopolitan, it also owns the real estate assets of the MGM Grand, MGM Mandalay Bay and Bellagio resorts.Credit: AP
McBeath was already an industry veteran - schooled by Las Vegas legends like Steve Wynn - when he was brought in to run the Cosmopolitan business in 2014 when Blackstone acquired it for $US1.73 billion.
“These are very sophisticated and very intelligent people,” McBeath told the Las Vegas Review Journal in 2015 of his Blackstone bosses. “(They have) a simple philosophy; hire the best-in-class management, put them into the game and support them.”
Last year, Blackstone announced the sale of the entire business for $US5.7 billion in a deal that splits the operating assets from the underlying real estate. MGM Resorts paid $US1.6 billion for the operating business alone.
Splitting the operating business from the underlying real estate was a strategy that both Crown and the Star Entertainment Group have considered locally.
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