Crown Resorts targeted by AGM protest votes
Crown and its directors were targets of AGM shareholder protests, as the board defended casinos’ conduct.
Two directors of the James Packer-backed Crown Resorts, Helen Coonan and Harold Mitchell, have suffered significant protest votes against their re-election to the board.
The protest came as they and their fellow board members again united to firmly reject allegations of links between the casino group’s high rollers and organised crime.
At today’s annual general meeting in Melbourne, former Coalition government minister Helen Coonan revealed she had chaired eight meetings of a subcommittee of Crown’s independent directors assembled to consider the extensive media allegations made against the group in recent months.
She claimed the allegations were made “with scant regard to the facts”.
“Allegations are not facts. They are not facts. That is precisely why we have taken the steps we did,’’ she said referring to the full-page advertisements taken out by the Crown directors rebutting the allegations of Crown’s links to prostitution and organised crime figures in Australia and China.
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Ms Coonan, who is chair of the company’s audit committee, suffered a 22.9 per cent vote against her re-election to the board, largely due to concerns among proxy advisory groups about the high level of non-audit fees paid to the company’s auditor, EY.
Shareholders at the meeting also expressed concern about her workload.
Crown suffered a 17 per cent protest vote against its remuneration report at the meeting. The vote would have been over the 25 per cent threshold required to trigger a strike without 37 per cent shareholder James Packer voting his shares in favour of the report.
Crown also revealed at the meeting that long-serving director and chairman of the company’s remuneration and nominations committee, former Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon, would not seek re-election to the board.
Former advertising baron Harold Mitchell suffered a 27.1 per cent vote against his re-election to a final three-year term as a director, partly because of his age.
Mr Mitchell is also facing civil charges laid by the corporate regulator that he improperly helped the Kerry Stokes-backed Seven West Media win the broadcast rights to the Australian Open tennis tournament.
In prepared remarks to the Crown meeting on the matter, Mr Mitchell said he was “well aware of what is expected of me as a company director”, denied any wrongdoing and said he fully expected to win the case and clear his name.
On the allegations that have been levied against Crown, Mr Mitchell said: “I do care about this organisation . . . I care about the reputation of this company . . . When we see those things occurring out there. I worry for my people.”
He also rejected suggestions in a question from Reverend Tim Costello that Crown was a “burning platform”.
Crown revealed earlier today that VIP program play turnover at its Australian resorts decreased by 46 per cent between July 1 and October 20, reflecting difficult trading conditions in the international VIP market.
The company has been outperformed by its rival, The Star, which has enjoyed an increase in VIP visitation over the same period.
Crown chief financial officer Ken Barton acknowledged the decline was a “significant number”, but denied it represented a trend because it was for such a short period.
“Macro-economics headwinds are contributing,’’ he said.
Former AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou, who suffered only a small protest vote against his re-election to the Crown board, said he had signed the advertisements taken out by the board rebutting the media allegations “not based on management advice”.
“I have been very disappointed in what has been reported. None of us enjoy being called into question from a reputational perspective,’’ he said.
“When you feel you are being wronged and there are sensational allegations, you call them out.”
In his address to the meeting Crown Resorts executive chairman John Alexander stepped up his attack against what he calls “interests and activists who continue to pursue an anti-Crown agenda”.
Mr Alexander criticised a report in Nine newspapers last week alleging Crown employees were expected to facilitate bringing overseas high rollers into Australia without customs checks.
“Take for example one story from last week with more of these sensationalist claims. To give you a taste of the quality of this journalism, let me quote from the article itself – ‘The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have been unable to independently verify the material’” Mr Alexander said.
“As someone who has 50 years’ experience in journalism and media management, and who was once editor-in-chief of both the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review, I have never seen a quality news organisation publish a story it openly admits it hasn’t been able to verify.”
The former Australian border force boss Roman Quaedvlieg is set to testify in public hearings next week into corruption allegations involving the agency’s treatment of Crown casino high-rollers.
But Mr Alexander noted in his address that this week the Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Mike Pezzullo, rejected allegations Crown was bypassing the visa process.
“Giving evidence to a Senate estimates hearing, he said, quote, ‘No-one can come to Australia without a visa, so the suggestion that people come uncredentialled is wrong’.
“Later, he went on to say, quote, ‘The law is applied universally. So, when you ask if we have a double standard and carve out particular entities, the answer is no’,” Mr Alexander said.
NSW’s independent Liquor and Gaming Authority is also currently conducting a public inquiry into Crown, reviewing the sale in May by Crown’s biggest shareholder, billionaire James Packer, of a 19.9 per cent stake in the company to Lawrence Ho’s Melco Entertainment.
ILGA is examining Melco’s links to Mr Ho’s father, the Macau casino billionaire Stanley Ho, who has long faced allegations of links to organised crime.
Crown’s licence for its $2 billion Sydney casino, granted in 2014, forbids it from dealing with a list of companies and individuals associated with Stanley Ho.
In his address to shareholders Mr Alexander said revenue from main floor gaming (excluding VIP program play revenue) at Crown’s Australian reports was up 2 per cent on the prior corresponding period, while non-gaming revenue was broadly flat between July 1 and October 20.
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