Melco mishap puts $20m back in James Packer’s pocket

Lawrence Ho and James Packer. Picture: Bloomberg

Every cloud has a silver lining, even for billionaire James Packer.

COVID-19 was blamed by the Aussie gaming mogul’s “brother” from another mother, Lawrence Ho, earlier this month when the Hong Kong casino operator dropped plans to take his 9.9 per cent, $900 million, stake in Crown to 19.9 per cent.

The decision by Ho’s Melco has meant $900 million less in Packer’s pocket, but at least the Crown 35 per cent shareholder gets to keep the dividends that would have otherwise flowed to Ho from today’s Crown interim results if the share sale deal had proceeded.

Packer has 237.03 million Crown shares that at the group’s $11.80 a share opening price were worth $2.8 billion.

Crown’s new boss Ken Barton today declared a 30 cents-a-share interim dividend on Crown shares for a sweet income flow to Packer of $71.1 million.

If the second 10 per cent tranche of Packer’s Crown stock had gone to Ho, the Aussie billionaire’s dividend would have been a lesser $51 million-odd.

The extra $20.3 million is sweet income for the troubled billionaire, with the Crown dividend now his major source of day-to-day play money.

Ho’s Melco will still welcome its $20.3 million pay day from the dividend on its 9.99 per cent stake in the $8 billion listed group, with the coronavirus that’s gripping the region taking its toll on Ho’s Melco operations.

Melco controls its Crown via an entity registered in the tax haven that is the Caribbean’s Cayman Islands.

Happy days.