By Amelia McGuire and Cameron Atfield
The Star has been suspended from trading on the ASX after it failed to unveil its financial results for the 12 months to June 30, as its executives continue to lobby governments, banks and investors in a last-ditch effort to stay solvent.
Star Entertainment Group operates three casinos in Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast and in the coming days is expected to show a billion-dollar impairment after months of poor trading and inflated regulatory costs.
New boss Steve McCann has been locked in talks with the Queensland and NSW governments since last week to try and secure tax reprieves to bide the battered business some time to shore up its financials. He has also been lobbying major investors and banks in the hope of securing a fresh cash injection.
The Star may get a tax reprieve in Queensland and opened its new Queen’s Wharf Brisbane precinct last Thursday.Credit: Star Entertainment
Queensland Premier Steven Miles confirmed on Monday his government was considering The Star’s request. A spokesperson for the NSW government said it was up to the business to maintain its financial viability.
Miles said he was in “ongoing discussions” with The Star about the tax arrangements for its Brisbane and Gold Coast casinos. Last week, The Star opened its long-awaited $3.6 billion casino precinct, Queen’s Wharf Brisbane, which is expected to employ up to 3000 people.
Premier of Queensland Steven Miles.Credit: Jamila Toderas
“It’s too soon to say what arrangements we might make with Star, but we will ensure, of course, that they make the contribution to Queensland that they committed to when we signed that contract,” Miles said.
“That includes delivering Queen’s Wharf Brisbane, delivering the surrounding public realm, including the [Neville Bonner] bridge, and delivering those 1400 [new] jobs as well as a revenue return to the state.”
The Queen’s Wharf precinct is a joint venture with Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Far East Consortium. Investment sources not authorised to speak publicly said The Star had been considering writing off all of its equity in the multibillion-dollar venue.
The NSW government has already agreed to defer the implementation of poker machine duty rises for The Star until 2030, but a spokesperson said it would not provide further assistance.
“The NSW government’s assessment is that any NSW taxpayer assistance would primarily support the Star’s Queensland expansions,” the spokesperson said.
The NSW government has also pushed back its mandatory carded play deadline to give the struggling casino more time to prepare for the complicated transition, which would have prevented gamblers from using more than $1000 cash. Instead, The Star has until October 19 to upgrade its machines and will be able to accept $5000 in daily cash transactions for another year.
The Star was supposed to unveil a bleak financial update on Friday but instead entered a trading halt because the contents of the NSW inquiry report would influence its guidance outlook. It was suspended from trading by the ASX on Monday and has provided no clarity on when it will post its results.
“The securities of [The Star] will be suspended from quotation from the commencement of trading today, Monday, September 2, for not lodging the relevant periodic report by the due date,” the ASX said.
McCann has also approached major investors and banks for hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding. In 2023, The Star extracted almost $1.5 billion from shareholders across two capital raises as it juggled the cost of its Queen’s Wharf expansions, higher remediation costs and low trading through its three casinos.
The casino operator’s business is currently worth just $1.3 billion, based on the last trading price of its stock at 45¢.
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