James Packer sells down Crown Resorts stake
Billionaire James Packer has sold down his majority control of casino company Crown Resorts.
Mr Packer made about $450 million from the sale of 35 million Crown Resorts shares, or about 4.8 per cent of the company, controlled by his private investment vehicle Consolidated Press Holdings, the investment vehicle set up by his late father Kerry Packer.
The shares were sold at $12.80 each, a five per cent discount to last Friday’s $13.52 closing price.
The prices was also below the $13.31 they were selling at on Monday morning.
In its letter to Crown, CPH said it remained committed to Crown and did not elaborate on the reason for the sale. Nor did it identify the buyers.
The sale follows Mr Packer’s $1.25 billion settlement last year with his sister Gretel Packer who had negotiated stakes in the listed Crown Resorts, American listed online real estate business Zillow, cash holdings and some interest in CPH.
James Packer had reportedly taken on some debt as part of the settlement with his sister.
The sell-down comes at a time when Crown Resorts is pursuing a demerger of its operations.
The demerger will see one company will holding its stake in its troubled Asian gaming company Melco Crown in Macau and some other international assets. The other will house Crown’s Australian casino businesses.
by Leon Gettler, August 30th 2016
